Melissa Lucashenko is in-conversation with Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou discussing Loving Country: A Guide to Sacred Australia.

Loving Country is a powerful and essential guidebook that offers a new way to travel and discover Australia through an Indigenous narrative. In this beautifully designed edition, with over 350 full colour photos, co-authors Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou show travellers how to see the country as herself, to know her whole and old story, and to find the way to fall in love with her, our home.

Featuring 18 places in detail, from the ingenious fish traps at Brewarrina and the rivers that feed the Great Barrier Reef, to the love stories of Wiluna and the whale story of Margaret River, there is so much to celebrate. This immersive book covers history, Dreaming stories, traditional cultural practices, Indigenous tours and the importance of recognition and protection of country. It offers keys to unlock the heart of this loving country for those who want to enrich their understanding of our continent, and for travellers looking for more than a whistle-stop tour of Australia.

The year 2020 has been one of pain and learning. Terrible bushfires raged across the nation, coronavirus has disoriented our society as a whole, the Black Lives Matter movement has pointed to the systematic inequality and violence against diverse people around the world, mining company Rio Tinto destroyed yet another sacred site with history dating back tens of thousands of years. We really are at a crossroads in our nation’s history and this book will serve to guide us. Loving Country, is a travel book, certainly, but it is much more than that. This book is bold and unafraid, the writing evocative and poetic. It will play an important role in how we perceive our country into the future.

In Loving Country, Bruce and Vicky hope that all communities will be eard when they tell their stories, and that these stories and the country from which they have grown will be honoured. Beautifully designed around Vicky’s incredible photos, Loving Country has been created in consultation with communities.

With this book, readers are encouraged to discover sacred Australia by reconsidering the accepted history, and hearing diverse stories of her Indigenous peoples. It is a roadmap to communication and understanding, between all peoples and country, to encourage environmental and social change.

Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. He’s worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor. He’s also written thirty other books including the short story collections Night Animals and Nightjar, and academic texts including The Little Red Yellow Black Book with AIATSIS. Dark Emu (Magabala Books) won Book of the Year and the Indigenous Writer’s Prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2016, and has now sold in excess of 200,000 copies.

Vicky Shukuroglou is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher dedicated to deepening her understanding of the Earth through careful observation and hands-on care of country. These drive her creative process, with which she hopes to rouse your heart. She has worked collaboratively with writers, musicians, scientists, Indigenous communities and young people. Remarkable projects have evolved out of her commitment to shifting perceptions and bringing young people’s powerful work to the attention of ‘grown-ups’. Vicky’s supporters and partners have included UNESCO, Sanskriti Kendra, Instituto Sacatar, and other organisations, schools and universities.