‘I’m the storyteller, you’re the writer, and this is our book.’

The late Vince Copley, a First Nations man and Ngadjuri Elder, was much loved and a good friend to many. This book is his life story, which he and I wrote together during 2020 and 2021. By then, Vince was in his eighties. I’d worked with him for a few years before as a researcher and writer. Seeing what came out of our work together gave Vince and his wife, Brenda, the idea for us to work on his life story.

Vince lived in Australia through a period of intense social change from the 1940s on. He was in the thick of the work that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were doing to break free from the control governments had over their lives. He was also a gifted sportsman.

A few months into our work on the book, Vince read some of the early draft chapters and said to me: ‘I’m the storyteller, you’re the writer, and this is our book.’ For him this was reconciliation in action: an Indigenous person and a non-Indigenous person working together to make something good to share with others.

We finished the manuscript just a few weeks before Vince died in early 2022. He was 85. ABC Books published it later in the year. 

Vince was a vivid and wise storyteller. He had a unique way of seeing the world, and was both deeply serious and deeply fun. It was a joy to work with him and be his friend.

Published by ABC Books

Available at Booktopia