Reading Against Racism

Published on 05 June 2020

For those interested in learning more about dismantling systemic racism, we’ve collated a list of suggested reading from our non-fiction, memoir, fiction and children’s collections.

You can find more titles by searching our catalogue here. If you’d like to request a title we currently don’t have available, please email library@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au

Braybrook Library also holds a collection of items relating to Australia's Indigenous peoples and culture. The Indigenous Collection includes recently published books as well as historical texts. We have a large collection of children's stories, biographies, art books and DVDs.

If you would like to read any of the print books, we are still delivering books directly to your home as part of our Reservation Delivery Service.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that some of the following resources may include information or references to people who are deceased.

Children and youth

• Welcome to Country Youth Edition: An Introduction To Our First Peoples For Young Australians by Marcia Langton. Available in print here.
• Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe. Available in print here.
• My Kind by Eddie Betts. Available in print here.
• My People by Eddie Betts. Available in print here.
• Respect by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson; illustrated by Lisa Kennedy. Available in print here.
• Little Nic’s Big Day by Nic Naitanui. Available in print here.

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Available in print here, eBook here, and DVD here.

Adult non-fiction and memoir

• Am I Black Enough for You? By Anita Heiss. Available in print here.
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Available in print here.
• Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch. Available as an eBook here.
• Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe. Available in print here, eBook here and here, and eAudiobook here.
• Diversify: How to Challenge Inequality and Why We Should by June Sarpong. Available as an eBook here.
• Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri. Available as an eBook here.
• Growing up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss. Available in print here, eBook here and here, and CD here.
• Growing Up African in Australia edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke, with Magan Magan and Ahmed Yusuf. Available in print here and eBook here.
• How To Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Available as an eBook here.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Available in print here.
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown. Available as an eBook here.
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. Available in print here.
• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the Worldby Tyson Yunkaporta. Available in print here, and eBook here and here.
• So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Available as an eAudiobook here.
• Talking to My Country by Stan Grant Available in eBook here Available in print here.
• The Colonial Fantasy: Why White Australia Can’t Solve Black Problems by Sarah Maddison. Available in print here.
• The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcom X et.al. Available as an eBook here.
• The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Available in print here.
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Available as an eBook here.
• They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of Black Lives Matter by Wesley Lowery. Available in print here and eBook here.
• Truganini by Cassandra Pybus. Available in print here, and eBook here.
• Welcome to Country: A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia by Marcia Langton. Available in print here and eBook here
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Available as an eBook here.
• White Tears, Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad. Available in print here and eBook here.
• Why I’m No longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Available in print here and eBook here.

Adult fiction

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Available in print here and eBook here.
• Beloved by Toni Morrison. Available in print here.
• Carpentaria by Alexa Wright Available in print here Available as an eBook here Available as an eAudio here.
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. Available in print here, eBook here and here, and eAudiobook here and here.
• Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Available in print here.
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Available as an eBook here
• Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenki. Available in print here, and eBook here and here.
• The White Girl by Tony Birch. Available in print here, and eBook here.
• The Yield by Tara June Winch. Available in print here, eBook here, eAudiobook here, and CD here.
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Available in print here and eBook here.