Thomas Mayo to launch new book in Queenscliff

BESTSELLING First Nations author and leading Voice to Parliament referendum “Yes” campaigner Thomas Mayo will visit Queenscliff this weekend as part of a national book tour.

Always Was, Always Will Be considers the future of reconciliation and justice in Australia following last year’s failed October referendum.

“Ultimately, we all should want to leave the next generation a little wise, with a more peaceful, fairer world,” Mayo writes in the opening pages of Always Was, Always Will Be.

“This is the vision we fought for in 2023, and we will not lose sight of it.

“To achieve our goals for the future, we must take action.”

As part of his book tour, Mayo will make a stop at the Queenscliff Town Hall this Sunday, October 27 for the Queenscliffe Literary Festival. He will be in conversation with constitutional law expert Shireen Morris and radio presenter Amy Mullins.

The event is as an opportunity for the community to engage, listen and learn, and to find out ‘What’s next?’.

“Many of the 60,000 volunteers and the six million Australians who voted ‘Yes’ want to know what to do next. Some who voted ‘No’ still want progress,” Mayo writes.

The book, he said, begins with the ingredients for hope: “energy, motivation and a belief in what you cannot yet see” and provides its readers with a map to “see where the hazards are, the obstacles and the barriers and finally, a clear indication of how to reach our common destination: justice and reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.

“The campaign continues.”

For tickets, head to queenscliffeliteraryfestival.com.au/buy-tickets/week-two

Next week, Mayo will also visit Torquay as part of an event presented by the newly formed Surf Coast for Reconciliation community group, in partnership with Torquay Books.

He will be joined by a panel of First Nations people who live and work on Wadawurrung Country, including community leader and Koori Court Elder Aunty Fay Muir, the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative’s Julie Saylor Briggs and Surfing Victoria’s Indigenous aquatics manager Jordie Campbell.

Tickets to the Torquay event at Grant Pavilion on Monday, October 28 between 6.30pm and 8.30pm are $6 and can be purchased via Eventbrite.