A Very Secret Trade

‘Pybus is a brilliant storyteller - this is a book for history buffs as well as anyone who wants to better understand the darkest sides of Australia’s past’ - The Guardian‘Pybus has managed to lift the veil from an extremely dark chapter in Australia’s colonial history…an important book that deserves to be widely read’ - Sydney Morning Herald ‘In her vivid and ethical capturing of the Tasmanian apocalypse, Pybus smashes the fiction of contemporary imaginings and repopulates the canvas with undeniable truths.’ - The Saturday Paper ‘The sweep of her research is breathtaking, her findings even more so.’ - Judges’ comments, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards ‘A meticulously researched, beautifully written and deeply moving account of the shadow market in the skeletal remains of Tasmania’s first people’ - Inside Story ‘In her captivating book and a piece of truth-telling par excellence, Pybus uncovers the network of colonial men in Tasmania who used their status and laced it with deception and trickery to obtain the Ancestral remains of Palawa men, women and children, and ship them off to Europe…’ - Professional Historians Association of Australia

Cassandra Pybus is an award-winning author and a distinguished historian. She is the author of thirteen books including the bestselling biography, Truganini and has held research professorships at the University of Sydney, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Texas and King’s College London. She is descended from a colonist who received the largest free land grant on Truganini’s traditional country of Bruny Island.