Nyinanyi ngurangka – being on country – is not a ‘lifestyle choice’ but a hard-won right, a spiritual and cultural duty, a constant battle, a source of happiness and opportunity and the meaning of life all at the same time.

Every hill got a story is the first comprehensive history of Central Australia’s Aboriginal people, as told in their own words and many languages. In this heartbreaking, funny and poignant collection, 127 eminent men and women remember surviving first contact, massacres and forced removals and resisting more than a century of top-down government policies. Their testimonies, some accessible as audio sound bites, paint an unflinchingly honest picture of life and work on the missions, cattle stations and fringes of towns. They speak eloquently of their struggle for self-determination and basic citizen rights. The storytellers also celebrate winning back ownership of more than 410,000 square kilometres of their ancestral lands.

Key to this achievement, and deeply entwined with the lives of the storytellers and their families, is the Central Land Council. It is a Commonwealth statutory authority governed by 90 elected Aboriginal representatives. The CLC has protected the interests of Aboriginal people in the southern half of the Northern Territory since 1975 against ongoing threats to their rights. It supports them to manage their land and to use income from it to strengthen their communities and to achieve their social, cultural and economic aspirations. Through the CLC, the people and the land tell us of country where every hill got a story.