DIMMANGALI is set in the early era of white settlement in South-East Queensland, between 1820 and 1842.
It tells the story of Buruda, a proud aboriginal manngur of the Undanbi people, custodians of the lands around Caloundra, and his leadership at this time.
To these people, the land was a spiritual entity that gave life to all - humans and animals and plants. The proponents of this philosophy could not help living each day in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth.
The Undanbi believed the white men to be makaron, spirits who had not taken the proper path of being reborn as children, and some of the surrounding peoples had even befriended a few of them.
But as increasing numbers of makaron pillaged their forests and depleted their animal numbers, the makaron presence became more sinister.
As women were raped, and thunder-sticks brought down more and more of their warrior dhan, the full calamity of white settlement on the Undanbi way of life could no longer be tolerated!
Clarrie Diefenbach was a senior lecturer at Brisbane College of Advanced Education until his retirement in 1987.
He has a Master of Education, the subject of his his book being "Student Teachers' Attitudes to Aboriginals". He had, for many years, been lecturing in Prejudice and Racism, and been appalled at some of the attitudes he had come across towards Aboriginals.
