Dr Wayne Atkinson is a proud Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man. He was the senior research officer for the Yorta Yorta Nations as they pursued their native title land rights claim and provided leadership of the Barmah National Park campaign, bringing the forest under joint Yorta Yorta and state government management. After completing a PhD he became a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, teaching about Yorta Yorta culture, their land rights struggle and long history of political activism. Dr Atkinson created the concept of Oncountry Learning, which is taught in Yorta Yorta country.

Catherine Guinness was born in England of Irish and English ancestry with connections to the Guinness family line in Ireland. Her family migrated to Sydney, where she completed a science degree. She worked on racial equality with West Indian communities in England and, back in Australia, has worked extensively with Aboriginal communities, especially on adult education, and with women and refugees. She is the author of Rubber Justice, which chronicles her grandfather’s humanitarian work in the Congo, and A Haunting Silence, which seeks the truth about her great grandfather, a landowner in Tasmania at the time of the Black War.