WHEN I TOLD my six-year-old son I was writing a book that would be titled Finding the Heart of the Nation, he asked me, ‘Where is the heart of the nation?’ I pulled him close, put my hand on his heart and told him, ‘The heart of the nation is here’. From the way his smile met his cheeks and his cheeks touched his eyes, I could see he was proud to hear my answer. He understood that the book was for him.

Not for him individually, a Torres Strait Islander boy born on Larrakia country in Darwin. No. It was written for all the children of Australia who, with the innocence of youth, imagine they will inherit a nation no longer trapped in its colonial past. Our children imagine Australia as it should be.