Bruce Elder has published over fifty books and was previously a full-time journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald where he specialised in popular culture and travel. He has a passion for Australian history.

Blood on the Wattle was published in 1988 to considerable acclaim and is now it its third edition. Bruce has said his book was an attempt to draw together in one volume information about the massacres of Aboriginal people and to create a broad-based level of awareness of their scale so they become part of the Australian consciousness - as much a part of Australian history as the First Fleet, the explorers, the gold rushes and the bushrangers.

Many people have requested more details about the upcoming referendum for constitutional recognition and a Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Blood on the Wattle provides a context for that request.

Blood on the Wattle was listed as one of the ten most influential Australian works of non-fiction in the twentieth century, in an extensive poll conducted by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Wattles are one of the first plants to germinate after a bushfire and can be seen as a symbol of resilience and renewal. They are important in Indigenous culture as food and medicines as well as for creating digging sticks, spears, boomerangs, musical instruments, utensils, rope and adhesives.