Stolen Man on Stolen Land: Being African-American in Australia

When Tyree Barnette moved to Sydney from North Carolina, he knew little of his new home. On first arriving, he was pleasantly surprised: the police treated him with respect and Black American culture seemed to be widely admired and celebrated.

But in time, Tyree saw the darker side to Australia’s relationship with African American culture – a relationship that often tipped from admiration into fetishisation. The undercurrents of racism in Australia came into view, as did the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Australians against injustice.

As the USA shifted its place on the global stage through the rise of Trump, the Black Lives Matter Movement and a new era of political polarisation, Tyree watched from a distance and learned the unique joy and pain of migration. Balancing the insistent tug of home with the possibility of a new life, he explores this experience with nuance, self-awareness and kindness.

This is the perspective that has been missing from the race discussion in Australia, one that considers how privilege and race can shift across time and borders. Stolen Man on Stolen Land is both a love letter to Australian multiculturalism and a clear-eyed exploration of its successes and its failings.