In 1915, my grandfather Mick Simmonds and other children were excluded from Nambucca Heads Primary School because of their Aboriginality. Mick lived and worked with his Aboriginal relatives in inner-city Sydney from the 1920s, eventually owning his own house in Redfern where he and my grandmother lived for the rest of their lives. However, he never told his daughter or his grandchildren about what had happened back in 1915. In fact, he never told us anything about our Aboriginal heritage. Researching this book has been a journey of discovery.
