A new book by Henry Reynolds, Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, is the product of a lifetime spent researching the frontier wars that the British settler colonies in Australia waged against the Aboriginal people.

Reynolds takes his inspiration from the “Uluru Statement from the Heart,” released in 2017 by the First Nations National Constitutional Convention. The statement demands the Australian government to amend its constitution to mandate an indigenous voice in parliament. It also calls for a truth and reconciliation process, and a negotiated treaty between Australia and its First Nations. Although the former Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull rejected the statement, it has since garnered public support.

Reynolds also responds to intellectuals and historians associated with the Australian right, who, following former PM John Howard, attacked what they called the “black armband” school of history. These conservative historians proposed that we should not judge Australia’s colonial settlers retrospectively, but rather understand them in light of their contemporary values and laws.