Up from the Mission

Noel Pearson is the most influential intellectual in Australia' John Hirst, The Australian Literary Review

Up from the Mission charts the life and thought of Noel Pearson, from his early days as a native title lawyer to his position today as one of Australia's most influential figures.

This is writing of great passion and power, which introduces a fascinating man and a compelling writer. Many of the pieces included have been hard to find until now. Gathered together in a cohesive, broad-ranging book, they show a key Australian thinker coming into being.

Pearson evokes his early life in Hope Vale, Queensland. He includes sections of his epoch-making essay Our Right To Take Responsibility, which exposed the trap of passive welfare and proposed new ways forward. There are pieces on the apology; on Barack Obama and black leadership; on Australian party politics Keating, Howard and Rudd; and on alcoholism, despair and what can be done to mend Aboriginal communities that have fallen apart.

Noel Pearson is a lawyer and activist, and director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. He has published many essays and newspaper articles. His first book, Up from the Mission (2009), is a collection of essays that charts his life and thought from his early days as a native title lawyer to his position today as one of Australia's most influential figures.