“There’s a constant noise out there that everyone is a racist in Australia [but] at some point you have to wake up in the morning and be happy.” This is how Joe Ross, a traditional owner with the Bunuba people who live in the limestone gorge and black soil country around Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of WA, sees the challenge facing his people.

Ross knows about poverty and grievance in remote communities. However, he also detects a sense of hope for  a historic reconciliation between black and white people in Australia that, if it took place sometime in the future – although hopefully not in the Never Never – would be a surprising long-term outcome of last month’s surprising election result.