An important reckoning with Australia’s unspoken history of slavery.

As a nation, we are becoming more accustomed to reckoning with the horrors and trauma of our colonial past, but one area has remained in the shadows: the Australian slave trade of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Known as ‘blackbirding’, this dark corner of our history has been evaded and elided. It is now confronted head-on by Ryan Butta in this new work of immersive and meticulously researched historical nonfiction.

In Blackbirding, Ryan Butta brings all his skills of combining serious historical research with compelling storytelling to the fore, following the success of his bestselling books The Ballad of Abdul Wade and The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli.