Tyree Barnette’s Stolen Man on Stolen Land is an incisive and unique examination of race in Australia, through the eyes of an African American migrant.
When Tyree Barnette moved to Sydney from North Carolina, he knew little of his new home. On first arriving, he was pleasantly surprised: the police treated him with respect and Black American culture seemed to be widely admired and celebrated.
But in time, Tyree saw the darker side to Australia’s relationship with African American culture – a relationship that often tipped from admiration into fetishisation.
The undercurrents of racism in Australia came into view, as did the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Australians against injustice.
Watching from a distance as the USA transformed, its place on the global stage shifting through the rise of Trump, the Black Lives Matter Movement and a new era of political polarisation, Tyree learned the unique joy and pain of migration.
Balancing the insistent tug of home with the possibility of a new life, he explores this experience with nuance, self-awareness and kindness. This is the perspective that has been missing from the race discussion in Australia, one that considers how privilege and race can shift across time and borders.
Stolen Man on Stolen Land is both a love letter to Australian multiculturalism and a clear-eyed exploration of its successes and its failings.
Tyree Barnette is a transplant to Sydney, originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. He and his wife, Tracina, moved to Sydney in 2013 after she accepted a job in clinical research at Macquarie Park. While here, they have grown their family with two boys: Hampton Tyree and Miles Isaac. His day job is as a Student Success Coach at Western Sydney University.
Additionally, Tyree is a member of the Sweatshop Literary Movement, where he has written numerous pieces for SBS Life and contributed to anthologies such as This Little Red Thing and Racism: Stories on Fear, Hate and Bigotry.
Tyree most enjoys writing about his experience as an African American in Australia and spending time with his two amazing boys.
Stolen Man on Stolen Land is published by Simon & Schuster (Affirm Press) and is available from all good book retailers including QBD Books.
Image: Stolen Man on Stolen Land – courtesy of Simon & Schuster (Affirm Press)