It was in the wake of her victory over columnist Andrew Bolt in the Federal Court.

He had been found to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act for columns in which he implied that Dr Heiss, among others, was too "fair skinned" to be Aboriginal, but chose to identify as such for financial gain and career advancement.

What came out of that victory was a memoir, the story of a high achieving Wiradyuri author and academic, but also an exposition on what it means to be Aboriginal, and the obsession with identity in Australia.

Now, a decade later, she found herself asking those same questions.

The death of George Floyd in 2020 and the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement was one reason they cropped up again. But closer to home, the treatment of AFL star Adam Goodes forced Dr Heiss to take a look at where Australia was with race relations.

"I wanted to have a look at that and try to understand and pose some questions to Australians about how that was allowed to happen," she said.

And so came her latest book, Am I Black Enough For You?: 10 years on. While some things have changed in the last decade, a lot have stayed the same, she said.

The recent furore around the removal of the Australian flag by the Greens is just one example.

The outrage directed at Aboriginal Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, who said that the Australian flag "does not represent me or my people", is evidence that as a nation, we're not ready to reconcile with our colonial past, she said.

"I've long been a supporter of changing the flag and the national anthem," she said.

"I think the whole flag situation, there's so much going on in the world and it's interesting to see what Australians get upset about."

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There have been some positives over the decade. Dr Heiss points to the explosion in the popularity of First Nations authors, as well as the general awareness of Aboriginal culture among young people.

"Eight of the top 10 selling books were First Nations authors last year," she said.

"And in those classrooms, all these kids, they know whose country they're on, they know a whole lot of heroes and sacred places in the area.

"So, that gives me hope for the next generation. That we will see the psyche of the nation be in a different place yet again. But it's taking a long time to get to where we are now, and there's still a long way to go," she said.