Riverbank Frank, David Marr to discuss 'bloody history' at book signing

The duo will be joined by member of the NSW Legislative Council, Stephen Lawrence, at Book Connection Dubbo on Thursday, December 7, to discuss Killing for Country, a reckoning with Australia's bloody history.

Mr Marr wrote the book, a no-holds-barred account of politics and power in the colonial world, after discovering his great-grandfather had been an officer of the brutal Native Police.

"An old uncle of mine asked me to dig around because he knew nothing about his grandmother," Mr Marr told the Daily Liberal.

"And so I dug around and it didn't take me long to discover that her father was this officer in the native police - which rocked me, I have to say.

"I pretty quickly decided, within an hour or so, that the only decent thing I could do about this discovery was investigate it, write about it ... and so I spent nearly five years working on it."

Mr Marr said it was "curious" to him what children were taught in school about Australia's history.

"We need to know the true history of this country, and most people don't," he said.

When he and many others were at school, he was taught "a simple version of our history", covering Captain Cook, convicts, wool, gold, the Eureka Stockade and Gallipoli.

"But behind all of that is the real story of how Australia came to be: how the continent came to be occupied, the terms on which it was taken from its original owners, the way in which it was taken," Mr Marr said.

"And that history is not taught, but it is the real history of the country and should be taught."

Mr Marr described his book as "a big fat story about what really happened in this country", and with "no excuses, whatever for the behaviour of my family".

He hoped his book would show "this country was conquered, the conquest was bloody, and we live with the consequences of that".

He hoped attendees at the conversation hour would feel open to bringing their own points of view to the conversation, allowing "a vigorous, frank discussion about all of this".

Local Aboriginal elder, Mr Doolan, said he read Killing for Country twice, and found it "a confronting battle, controversial, and a cruel read", and he "couldn't put the book down".

"It's as if every page drips with blood. As somebody who has believed in and lived the idea of reconciliation for a long while it was certainly an eye opener," Mr Doolan told the Daily Liberal.

"It's a history that none of us really know very much about and [David Marr] has taken the time to research and to highlight the part his own family have played in that.

"So on that score, I commend [the author] for his courage and his integrity and his part in telling the Australian story."

He said every Australian "who cares about this place, where we come from, where we're going and who we really are, needs to read this book".

Mr Doolan believed the book should be essential reading for senior high school students, along with the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from "the late, great Hal Wootten".

"You'll find that if both those things are introduced into the curriculum in our schools, it will change this country forever into the future," he said.

"And really we need to know the history and we need to acknowledge it, but we need most of all not to become prisoners of our history."

The event at Book Connection is free to attend and will begin at 5.30pm. Signed copies of Killing for Country, published by Black Inc Books, will be available for purchase. Register your attendance here.