Winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2024 for Indigenous Writing.

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents:
It's a black/white thing: proppaNOW Artists Collective -- Fernando's Ghost -- hand in hand: sexy and dangerous -- A long way alright: Doris Pilkington -- Introducing Miss Georgia Lee -- Cast among strangers -- Alive and kicking -- (R)eclaimed: closing the gap of radical apathy -- Let's be polite about Aboriginal art: a conversation with Vernon Ah Kee -- Decolonising now: the activism of Richard Bell -- Tony Albert -- Daniel Boyd -- Unceded: contesting the national, or Australia is a foreign country -- Breaking the chains of the punishment tree: two survivors of the Kinchela Boys' Home -- 'Hijacked by a bunch of dickheads': the use and abuse of the Southern Cross -- Losing faith: betraying the promise of the 1967 Referendum -- The road back home: Fingal, Northern NSW -- Hiding in plain sight: decolonising public memory -- When Mardi Gras is over -- Tense past: Julie Gough -- Dear brother: the harrowing life journey of Archie Roach -- Brigid the bone -- Stuck -- Halo -- Dis-guise -- For the love of Mary -- The death of the dancer -- Shrewly innocent -- Alchemy and memory politics -- Nothing if not uncritical -- Thick classical statues were all white marble? Think again -- Monumental lies, or countering Cook -- Savour labour: object biographies -- Phalanx (Woman's work) -- Beautiful subterfuge: a personal reckoning with the art of Daniel Boyd -- Karla Dickens: cover-up -- I grew up in porpoise spit -- Gamay-gundul, juri-buyuhl.

This book is a collected works of one of Australia most accomplished media personalities. Chronicling his career since 2007, Close to the Subject presents a selection of pieces from Daniel Browning stellar career as a journalist, radio broadcaster, critic and interviewer. Alongside conversations with the likes of the late Archie Roach, Doris Pilkington, and Vernon Ah Kee, the book contains a series of critical essays displaying Browning talent as an Australian cultural critic and public intellectual. A range of previously unpublished poetry, memoir, art writing and play script is also presented, highlighting his vulnerable and passionate creative side in its own right.