On shelves and online in all good bookstores from September 2022.

Or purchase the audio version here (narrated by Aaron himself).

Aaron Fa’Aoso

Torres Strait Islander Aaron Fa’Aoso, father of two, has earned a living as a professional footballer, a Kings Cross bouncer, a remote community health worker, an acclaimed actor and—most recently—as the owner and manager of his own media production company.

You might have seen Aaron on tv: in food show Strait to the Plate; in the Torres Strait documentary Blue Water Empire; or as the star of ABC’s Black Comedy. Or maybe you’ve seen him in dramas: The Straits; Remote Area Nurse; or East West 101.

Aaron elected to produce his memoir in collaboration with me, Michelle Scott Tucker.  Published by Pantera Press, the book is available now in all good bookshops.

Frankly, it’s a privilege and an honour to work with Aaron (and I wrote a little about the process here). Like him, his story is smart and funny and full of emotional complexity and depth. I’m thrilled that we’ve found a publisher who is as ambitious for this important memoir as we are.

So Far, So Good is the first memoir to be commercially published by a Torres Strait Islander. Aaron’s story therefore provides an important contribution to the rising and very welcome tide of First Nations voices in Australia, addressing the under-representation of Torres Strait Islander perspectives in Australian life. Definitely not a footy memoir, it’s a candid and courageous book about truth-telling, racism, trauma and violence. And it’s also about love, and family and community.

Crucially though – and not incidentally – it is also a cracker of a read.

Listen to Aaron talk about his life, and his memoir, on ABC Radio’s ‘Conversations’ with Sarah Kanowski.

Deborah Mailman found it “honest and deeply affecting … a love letter to family, community and culture, full of laugh-out-loud moments, heartbreaking lessons and the importance of what really matters in this life.”

Matt Nable says the memoir is “a compelling read. Of a man who’s endured so much so early. Of a man connected to his people … a pure storyteller who, because of his trials, has found a compassionate voice full of dignity.”

Some early feedback from literary agents and publishers, about the manuscript:

  • This manuscript ripped my heart and guts out and then put them back together, and the heart at least is ten times bigger. Incredible!
  • What a triumph! The book is incredibly moving, disarming, honest, funny, entertaining and so damn compelling. I couldn’t put it down.
  • Aaron, you have truly put your heart on the page and are so brave to do so, and I commend you for it – it can’t have been easy. This honesty and vulnerability adds so much to the emotional pull of the book and I think readers will connect with the highs and lows of your journey due to the generous spirit in which it is told.
  • Michelle, you have so beautifully captured Aaron’s voice. I also feel like I know his Mum and Nan really well! It’s filled with warmth and humour and the insights into Torres Strait history, culture and community threaded throughout give it an extra layer of richness.
  • Truly something special here. Honestly, these are the books we got into the biz for and can’t wait to get it into the hands of Aussie readers everywhere.

In 2008, a month after Aaron married for the second time and just as his acting career was flourishing, his new wife took her own life. In the dark times that followed Aaron eventually found strength and meaning in his family, and in his beloved Torres Strait community.

So Far, So Good is as much the story of the challenges and aspirations of an underrepresented people as it is the story of an individual,’ says Aaron. ‘It’s an absolute pleasure to work on it with Michelle Scott Tucker – trust is not something I give so easily, however Michelle is the exception. I am also extremely grateful to Pantera for ensuring a broad audience can access a contemporary Torres Strait Islander story – one with more twists and turns than a Netflix series.’

Aaron’s story is all about what it means to be a successful Indigenous man in the twenty-first century. With generosity, humour and emotional insight he examines how the death of his father and grandfather, when Aaron was only six, led to his being raised by his loving but fiery mother and his even fiercer grandmother. How belief in himself as a warrior, and as a descendent of warriors, made him—literally and metaphorically—into a fighter.

And, given that so many white Australians can’t imagine a scenario that includes the words ‘successful’ and ‘Indigenous’ together, his story is also about what it means to push back against ignorance and racism.

Aaron actively supports and mentors others and is a board member of Screen Queensland. However, Aaron’s career, and his role as an emerging leader, were both hard-won in the face of many setbacks and heartaches.

Pantera’s publisher Lex Hirst said, ‘Brimming with Aaron’s warmth and humour yet unflinching in its examination of structural racism and its consequences, this book will move hearts and minds. Aaron’s generous invitation to step into his story and learn about his life, and through it, Torres Strait culture and history, is powerful storytelling at its finest.’

Aaron’s story moves well beyond the standard struggle-to-success narrative. It examines the wider issues of mental health, the challenges facing remote communities, the personal impacts of alcohol and violence, as well as the consolations of belonging to Country. A deeply spiritual man, Aaron’s story also addresses the effects of colonisation and Christianity on the people of the Torres Strait with nuance, understanding and empathy.

Agent Danielle Binks said, ‘Aaron signed with the Jacinta di Mase Agency back in 2018, and it really was a matter of everything falling into place to get here – of waiting for the right storyteller in Michelle, and then for Pantera Press to come on board as the perfect home for his story. Everything had to be right, Aaron had to be ready and feel comfortable – and Pantera went such a long way to ensuring that. We think this book is in the best possible hands, and we can’t wait for Aaron to have his say and for people to listen to this tale.’

Here’s a sample of what you can expect, with an excerpt from Aaron’s memoir …

Adhi kuikaimaw – Let’s begin the story

My family thought it was hilarious when I told them I was hoping to publish my memoir. They laughed like drains. When they worked out I was half-serious they scoffed and told me that’s what old people do, old people at the end of their lives. Not a middle-aged bloke like me. Middle-aged? Me? I’m only in my 40s … oh, hang on, wait.

Although I laughed along with them, and the conversation moved on, I was stung by the fear that I wasn’t old enough to tell my own story. It meant I delayed this project for years. I had some other fears too.

Plenty of people will tell you I’m not afraid of anything much, but the thought of telling my story made me uneasy. To be honest, I was scared of looking too closely into myself – I knew I might not like what I saw. So I kept putting this project off. I put it off while I worked, put it off while my life went on, and put it off while I attended funerals, so many funerals. Too many funerals.

But even as people I loved were dying around me, it took a while for the penny to drop: my chances of living to a ripe old age were pretty slim. The Australian government agrees. Official statistics tell us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men will, on average, live far shorter lives than non-Indigenous Australian men. Almost a decade shorter. That gap is even wider for those living in remote and very remote locations. Locations like the islands of the Torres Strait, for instance.

High suicide rates are one aspect of the appallingly low life expectancy. In 2019, suicide accounted for 5.7 per cent of all deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Among non-Indigenous Australians, suicide accounted for only 1.9 per cent of deaths. That is, First Nations people were three times more likely to take their own lives. It’s not a typo, don’t you dare fucking look away: three times, or three hundred per cent, more likely.

The combined result is chilling. After the last census, the government reported that fewer than five per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were aged 65 years or over, compared to 16 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians. So what were the chances that I would become one of the five per cent?

With those figures in mind, and with those funerals too, I decided that I needed to tell my story now. Even if I’m not an old man, it’s entirely possible that I’m near the end of my life. Because I’m black. Because I’m Indigenous. Because I’m a proud Torres Strait Islander man who grew up, and lives a life, immersed in Torres Strait culture. Look at me. I literally embody my culture. It’s in the shape of my face, the colour of my skin, the way that I speak. It’s in my blood and my thoughts and more than anywhere else it’s in my spirit.

I’m not scared of dying. The spirit leaves and continues on its journey – that’s what my culture tells me, and my religion too. But I do want to leave the world a better place, as my relatives and Ancestors did for me.

I start my story with a fight, and some related drama, but that is just to draw you in. The real story begins in my heart, and my heart belongs to some small islands off the northernmost tip of mainland Australia. My people there are warriors, that’s for sure, but we are storytellers too. I want people to know about where I’m from, about my culture, my people and my community. I also want people to know that this is why I’m like this.

I’ve made terrible decisions and I’m sorry for them. Unreliable, unpredictable, selfish, moody, volatile: at one time or another I’ve been all those things, because too often I was vulnerable, I was hurt, and I felt alone. I battled with myself every day. I put up walls, and some people thought they knew me when they didn’t. I’m the one who seems to be always laughing, joking, making everyone else feel comfortable. But until I fully trusted someone, they were never going to see me tender, relaxed or sensitive. But I’m those things too.

The experiences I’ve had, the decisions I’ve made, the people I’ve rolled with – all of this has forged me into the person I am today. Although I’ve fallen on my face again and again, somehow I’ve always got back on my feet – probably through the example of the incredible women who raised me. Maybe I look like a big, dumb bruiser but that’s another stereotype, another trap for people to fall into. I’m more complex than that; everyone is more complex than they seem.

For too long I didn’t realise the depth and intensity of what I’d been carrying. I’ve had to suppress a lot, because otherwise it would eat me up, but it compounded with the other hurts below the surface. Then, all too often, something would trigger me and that psychological shit popped out when I wasn’t expecting it, so I’d overreact. I’m not offering this as an excuse, mind you; I made the decisions and I’m accountable for them.

I am so sick of letting myself down, sick of letting other people down, sick of not fulfilling my potential.

Trauma has ankle-tapped me so many times, forcing me to fall short when I’ve been running for a try. Layers of trauma, begun in childhood and compounded by … well, compounded by almost everything else. To take advantage of my current opportunities I have to make sure I’m mentally and emotionally in the right place. I want to move up a gear, to deliver over and above, and I have to make sure I’m ready. I recognise that I have to do the work on myself, hold myself accountable and work through those layers of trauma.

An important part of that work involves telling the truth, here, in this book. I know that people will look at me differently because of it.

I’m guessing I’ll lose some work, lose some opportunities, possibly even lose friends because it won’t sit right with them. It doesn’t sit right with me either, it won’t ever sit right with me. I was a piece of shit, and I was despicable. If I could go back, I’d have removed myself from the situation, but I didn’t and here’s what happened. I can’t shy away from it. But I can tell you the truth about it.

One thing I’ve learnt is that if you tell the truth, it remains in your past. Tell a lie, and it’s always going to haunt your future.

So I’m telling the truth. Not because it will help anyone else (although if it does, great), and not because it will help me (quite the opposite, probably) but simply because it’s the right thing to do. And because I’ve got enough ghosts in my life already without adding lies to the mix.