Mission

With clarity and passion, Pearson inspires readers to see difficult and controversial issues in new ways.

Mission traces a life of politics, ideas and inspiring words.

Whether he is recalling his boyhood in Hope Vale, Queensland, making the case for Indigenous recognition, or evoking a reconciled, multicultural Australia, Noel Pearson confirms he is one of Australia's most powerful and influential thinkers - and an extraordinary writer.

Mission selects the best of Pearson's work to date. There are indelible portraits of political leaders seen close up - Keating, Rudd, Whitlam, Turnbull and more. There is Pearson's brilliant exploration of a Voice to Parliament, which led eventually to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. And there are acute analyses - of passive welfare; of the fate of the Labor Party; of identity politics, good and bad; and of education and the role of a great teacher.

The volume also contains a remarkable new extended title essay, in which Pearson reflects on his life and work so far.

Mission is honest, provocative and utterly original.

About the Author

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.

Up from the Mission (2009), a collection of his essays, 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.