The Shield and the Spear is mostly told through first hand contributions from the people who were there. The reader is taken on a journey through historic Indigenous rights battles such asthe Noonkanbah blockade in 1979, the formation of the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and CultureCentre (KALACC) and the Kimberley Language Resource Centre (KLRC) in 1984; the formation of Magabala Books in 1987; and the controversial James Price Point gas hub. Plus the many commercial negotiations facilitated by the KLC. Commissioned by the KLC, Fox uses a combination of interviews and eyewitness accounts; quotes from the KLC Newsletter; quotes taken from historic documents, speeches, recordingsand meetings; and historical and contemporary photographs and illustrations. The book is roughly chronological and the reader hears unmediated accounts of what happened.