When the Unspeakable Was Spoken: Stumbling on the Truth | Chapter 9 | Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts

What happens to a nation when its worst deeds are hidden, politely edited, or even put into code? In Chapter 9 of RAZOR-WIRE ROUND OUR HEARTS, the author is nineteen, drinking coffee in the university cafeteria in 1964 with the sons of wealthy graziers. One of them tells a funny story about his grandfather's Sunday afternoons: riding out with his squatter mates, with guns and dogs, to hunt Aboriginal people. The table falls silent. Then, politely, everyone changes the subject. White Australians had been told that Aboriginal people were not warlike. Of massacres they were told nothing at all, not one word. She traces the silence through her own family. On her father's side, three generations (Jabez, Charles and Frank) wrote fierce public protests against the killing, and yet the story never reached her. She turns to Jung's idea of the "shadow", the unwanted parts of ourselves that we lock in the cellar. And she asks how a whole nation could build its comfort on what it refused to look at. Then comes a footnote that arrived while she was recording this very chapter. On 8 August 2025 she finished reading the last line aloud, switched to her email, and found a story about a 19th-century colonial landowner who reportedly hid the details of killings in a Masonic cipher. His descendants are divided over what to do with the truth. His surname is her mother's maiden name. IN THIS CHAPTER The 1964 cafeteria and the story that stopped the laughter "They were not warlike": the myth that hid the frontier A family that wrote protests, and still never spoke of it at home Jung's shadow, and a national psyche built on silence "We have lived well on the proceeds of crime": benefit without guilt A coincidence on the day of recording, and the people who work to keep history hidden CONTENT NOTE This chapter discusses the hunting and massacre of Aboriginal people, including women and children, and quotes historical sources that use racist and dehumanising language. It is told in the spirit of truth-telling. Please take care of yourself while listening. SUPPORT 13YARN (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis support): 13 92 76 Lifeline: 13 11 14 TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 0:00 Chapter 9: Stumbling on the truth: massacres 0:00 "They were not warlike" 0:00 The university cafeteria, 1964 0:00 Heydon, Polding and a family of protesters 0:00 Frank's 1938 letter 0:00 The shadow and the national psyche 0:00 "Proceeds of crime" 0:00 8 August 2025: the footnote 0:00 Code, silence and a polite edition PLAYLIST This is the final chapter of Part 1. Previous: Chapter 8, "Blindness" [link] Next: Chapter 10, "Wogs begin at Calais..." [link] Full playlist, every chapter in order: [link to playlist] ABOUT THE BOOK Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts is a memoir of race, love and reconciliation, moving from 1960s Australia to Kathmandu and back again. Its message: truth-telling can help set us free. Get the book: [link] Author website: [link] Follow: [Instagram] [Facebook] [TikTok] If this chapter moved you, please like, share and subscribe, and tell me in the comments: what has your family never talked about? Acknowledgement: This chapter is set on Anaiwan Country. We pay respect to Elders past and present, and to those who never forgot. #RazorWireRoundOurHearts #Memoir #FrontierWars