Taking a Stand: Land Rights to Reconciliation

Taking a Stand is a candid account of six crowded years in the struggle for the rights of the first Australians. Told by our longest-serving Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, it gives the inside story of a succession of turning points in the history of black/white relations.
The creation of ATSIC, the passage of the Native Title Act following the High Court's Mabo decision, the appointment of the 'stolen generations' inquiry, the birth of the reconciliation process, the establishment of the Indigenous Land Fund - these are just some of the initiatives chronicled by a major participant.
From 1990 to 1996 Robert Tickner was in the thick of the fray as the federal governments confronted a two-century long legacy of neglect and discrimination, in circumstances which became increasingly bitter. Here the realities of the political contest are revealed - and the author frankly acknowledges that inertia and hostility to indigenous needs were not solely the property of the Opposition.

Robert Tickner is a country boy from the NSW central coast who became an Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer and an Alderman of the Sydney City Council. In 1984 he won the federal seat of Hughes and in 1990 became the federal Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. Until his tenure of the post, the average period in this position had been less than two years. Robert Tickner served for six years.