First published in 1979, this review of the recent history of the Aboriginal people of the lower Murray Lakes in south Australia won the SA Biennial History Prize in 1978, and the Wilke Literary Award for non-fiction in1979. Tells of the struggles of the Ngarrindjeri against European invasion and domination, and also discusses the role of the Aborigines' Friends Association, in particular George Taplin, who established the Point McLeay Mission and whose journals form a major source for this book. The author is a research fellow at the University of South Australia, a poet and composer.