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  • Black and Blue

  • A Memoir of Racism and Resilience
  • By: Veronica Gorrie
  • Narrated by: Tamala Shelton
  • Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (44 ratings)

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Black and Blue cover art

Black and Blue

By: Veronica Gorrie
Narrated by: Tamala Shelton
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Publisher's Summary

The story of an Aboriginal woman who worked as a police officer and fought for justice both within and beyond the Australian police force.

A proud Gunai/Kurnai woman, Veronica Gorrie grew up dauntless, full of cheek and a fierce sense of justice. After watching her friends and family suffer under a deeply compromised law-enforcement system, Gorrie signed up for training to become one of a rare few Aboriginal police officers in Australia. In her 10 years in the force, she witnessed appalling institutional racism and sexism and fought past those things to provide courageous and compassionate service to civilians in need, many Aboriginal themselves.

With a great gift for storytelling and a wicked sense of humour, Gorrie frankly and movingly explores the impact of racism on her family and her life, the impact of intergenerational trauma resulting from cultural dispossession and the inevitable difficulties of making her way in the white and male-dominated workplace of the police force.

Black and Blue is a memoir of remarkable fortitude and resilience, told with wit, wisdom and great heart.

©2021 Veronica Gorrie (P)2021 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic Reviews

"Loved it. I read it in one sitting - couldn't put it down." (Melissa Lucashenko, author of Too Much Lip)

"This is the read for Australia now...it crackles with urgency. Honestly. I was left with a startling clarity after reading Black and Blue." (Rick Morton, author of My Year of Living Vulnerably)

"Women who have historically been silenced: now more than ever, we need to be reading their stories." (Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald)

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What listeners say about Black and Blue

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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The emotion.

Best memoir I’ve read to date. It evoked so much emotion and had me on the edge of my seat. Women are amazing.

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Black and Blue

I loved this book, it is a truthful story of events and injustices experienced by this amazing First Nation's woman police officer.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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One woman’s emotional forever

Some of the reading is extremely frustrating with pauses and word emphasis in the wrong place but sentence structure by author is correct as indicated by the following punctuation. The narrators lovely calm voice however stops me from being overly bothered by it.
Ms Gorrie I hope you find your inner peace, lose your Mumma guilt (you forgave your own mother for much harsher injustice she laid at your door you should absolutely forgive yourself) while retaining your amazing passion

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challenging and brilliant

I loved this book, even though it was a challenging story to listen to.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Poor choice of voice talent

Tamala Shelton reading the audio is all breathy and zen like she’s reading a poem or running a yoga class rather than reading a book. It’s quite hard to listen to.

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Brutally honest and Poignant

Veronica generously offers her unique and insightful black and blue lived experiences that I found at times bone chilling sobering, heartbreakingly warming and downright bloody funny. Such an imperative read for all, especially non-Indigenous Australians.

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Real Resilience

What a story, sad, inspiring , thought provoking and very real. wow, it just me thinking how can you cope with this experience.

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  • Ian
  • 05-04-2022

A must read

A grueling account of racism in Australia and the Australian police force - hard to listen to... surely much harder to write. A must read for all Australians so we can make a better fairer place for all.

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A must read!

This book was phenomenal! The author is an amazing person, I am in awe of her and everything she has survived and accomplished. The book is confronting and highlights the deep generational impacts of racism and the ongoing struggle against racist institutions in Australia.

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Harrowing and powerful.

An at times harrowing account of personal experiences that have no doubt shaped the woman the author has become. The underlying themes of love, resilience and forgiveness made it possible to see this book to the end. Thank you to the author for sharing her story.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.