Thomas Mayo to launch new book in Torquay

BESTSELLING First Nations author and leading Voice to Parliament referendum “Yes” campaigner Thomas Mayo will next week launch his new book in Torquay as part of a national tour.

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

Next week’s event is being presented by the newly formed Surf Coast for Reconciliation community group, in partnership with Torquay Books.

“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.”

Mayo 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.

The event is as an opportunity for the community to engage, listen and learn from well-respected and active members of the community and beyond, 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.”

Tickets to the Torquay event at Grant Pavilion, 11 Kuwarrk Lane, Torquay on Monday, October 28 between 6.30pm and 8.30pm are $6 and can be purchased via Eventbrite.