NEW RELEASE - Chapter One Teaser for Brian AJ Newman's Book "Play Hard But Fair - Born Into The Fight"
- Brian AJ Newman LLB
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
There are stories that start with a place on a map.
And then there are stories that start with Country—the kind of beginning that doesn’t fit neatly into a postcode, a certificate, or a government record.
In 2026, I’m releasing PLAY HARD BUT FAIR — Book One: Born Into the Fight. This book is deeply personal, but it is also bigger than me. It’s a story about identity, displacement, survival, and the quiet ways Aboriginal families learned to navigate a world that often demanded silence.
This blog post is a teaser for Chapter One—a first taste of what’s coming.
What Chapter One is really about
Chapter One begins where my people begin: Country.
My bloodlines run through Ngarigo, Wiradjuri, and Anaiwan nations. Different landscapes, different languages, different laws of kinship and belonging—but a shared truth that identity is not a trend or a label. It’s something lived and carried.
In the opening chapter, I explain why Country is not scenery. It is story, obligation, memory, law, and identity—and why the disruption of Country isn’t “moving house.” It’s fracture.
The chapter also confronts something many families understand but rarely say out loud:
Sometimes identity denial isn’t shame.Sometimes it is protection—a survival strategy passed down in a country that punished Aboriginal visibility.
Listen Now ....
Chapter One teaser extract
Before I begin with my parents and my birthplace, I need to begin where my people begin: Country.My bloodlines reach into the Ngarigo, Wiradjuri, and Anaiwan nations—different landscapes, different languages, different laws of kinship and belonging, but one shared truth: we come from places that held us long before any modern map tried to rename us.Country is not “background scenery”. Country is a living system—story, obligation, memory, spirit, law, and identity. When you understand that, you understand why the loss of Country isn’t just relocation. It’s fracture.This book is not simply a personal memoir. It is also an account—sometimes quiet, sometimes blunt—of how Indigenous identity can be pushed, reshaped, and policed, and how families learn to survive in systems designed to make them disappear in plain sight.
(Excerpt used as teaser only. Full Chapter One will be released with the book.)
Why I’m publishing this book
People see the public work—advocacy, conflict, systems, institutions. What most don’t see is the origin: the childhood, the violence, the fractures, the long drives between Sydney and the northwest, and the safe haven of a tiny village where I could breathe.
Chapter One lays the foundation:
Born in Moree (2 January 1971)
Family roots across northern New South Wales
The push-pull between Sydney life and country life
The early understanding that the world could be hostile—and that survival required strategy
The deeper story of Aboriginal identity being carried in ways that were not always safe to announce
This isn’t written to impress anyone. It’s written to tell the truth, cleanly.
Release details
PLAY HARD BUT FAIR — Book One: Born Into the Fight📌 First release: 2026
As we get closer to launch, I’ll publish:
more teasers,
background context about the themes,
and the “why” behind the title.
Follow along
If you want updates on the release and future chapter teasers, keep an eye on the blog here on www.bajn.au.
This book was never going to be comfortable.
It was never meant to be.
It was meant to be real.
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