UQP acquires two new nonfiction titles by Foley, Bond

The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to two books by leading Indigenous scholars, visual artist Fiona Foley’s Biting the Clouds and public intellectual Chelsea Bond’s Another Day in the Colony.

Foley’s Biting the Clouds researches the historical practice of paying Indigenous people in opium, and aims to combine ‘historical, personal and cultural imagery to reclaim the Badtjala story from the colonisation narrative’. The book will be illustrated with historical images and Foley’s art.

UQP publishing director Madonna Duffy said: ‘I have been looking for leading Indigenous scholarship and Fiona’s manuscript shines a light on this shocking and little-known aspect of Australian history.’

Bond’s critical essay collection is named after a Twitter hashtag Bond and others use to highlight the everyday and ongoing nature of colonial violence and structural racism in Australia, particularly the treatment of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. Bond said the book brings together her academic work and ‘lived experiences as a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman growing up in the suburbs in the 80s’.

Publisher Aviva Tuffield said: ‘I have been following Chelsea’s work for a while now—and not just on Twitter—and I am so excited about the potential impact of this book. Chelsea has one of the sharpest minds around and her book will be essential reading for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences alike.’

UQP will publish Biting the Clouds in September 2020 and Another Day in the Colony in early 2021.

(Pictured L–R: Fiona Foley, Chelsea Bond)

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Chelsea Bond created the Twitter hashtag her collection is named after.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions