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In 1788 the Aboriginies of the Blue Mountains had had no contact with Europeans; within 30 years their traditional way of life had been irrevocably changed. Increasingly widespread discoveries of art sites, occupation sites, stone tools, axe-grinding grooves and stone arrangements, research into the journals and early writings of European explorers and settlers, and the compilation of oral histories, are providing a rich, if incomplete, account of the traditional lifestyles and environment of the Gundungurra and Darug people of the Blue Mountains. This new edition gathers together new research and information about the original inhabitants of the Blue Mountains.
Between 1936 and 1954 the Western Australian Government conducted Courts of Native Affairs that heard murder and manslaughter cases where both the defendant and victim were Aboriginal. Cases which for every other citizen carried the status of Supreme Court trials were reduced to summary hearings conducted by amateurs. In a major contribution to the nation's indigenous affairs history, Black Glass explores these little-known courts, along with the silence in which they were buried and the strategic silences exercised by their Aboriginal subjects.
What do you need to know to prosper for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. n Astronomy: Sky Country, Karlie Noon and Krystal De Napoli explore the connections between Aboriginal environmental and cultural practices and the behaviour of the stars, and consider what must be done to sustain our dark skies, and the information they hold, into the future.
The first book to reveal the secret and sacred practices of Aboriginal shamans, Aboriginal Men of High Degree, presents an extraordinary series of rites by which the young Aboriginal male begins the degrees of shamanic initiation--each marked by its own portion of esoteric knowledge.
The highly regarded history of Australia's First Nations people since colonisation, fully updated for this fifth edition. In the creation of any new society, there are winners and losers. So it was with Australia as it grew from a colonial outpost to an affluent society. Richard Broome tells the history of Australia from the standpoint of the original Australians: those who lost most in the early colonial struggle for power.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Relations Second Edition considers the contact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with Anglo-Australian law, and deals primarily with the problems the imposed law has had in its relationship with Indigenous people in Australia. The book is comprehensive in scope and covers key issues relating to sovereignty, jurisdiction and territorial acquisition; family law and child protection; criminal law, policing and sentencing; land rights and native title; cultural heritage, heritage protection and intellectual property; anti-discrimination law; international human rights law; constitutional law; social justice, self-determination and treaty issues.
Extending deep into the caverns of humanity's oldest memories, beyond 60,000 years of history and into the Dreamtime, this collection of Australian Aboriginal myths has been passed down through the generations by tribal storytellers. The myths were compiled at the turn of the century by K. Langloh Parker, one of the first Europeans to realize their significance and spiritual sophistication. Wise Women of the Dreamtime allows us to participate in the world's oldest stories and to begin a new dream of harmony between human society and nature.
William Cooper was an Australian Aboriginal activist who lived from 1860-1941 and his biography tells how he set a platform for activists to follow right up to 2019 with recent calls for Voice, Treaty, Truth in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He was the founder of NAIDOC and had the idea for the Day of Mourning for the 150th anniversary of white settlement. He petitioned the King of England for his people only to find that Aborigines were not citizens of Australia. This led to those he mentored like Ps Doug Nicholls taking up the campaign for the 1967 referendum so First Nations People could be counted in the census.
In this ground-breaking book, Judy Atkinson skilfully and sensitively takes readers into the depths of sadness and despair and, at the same time, raises us to the heights of celebration and hope. She presents a disturbing account of the trauma suffered by Australia's Indigenous people and the resultant geographic and generational 'trauma trails' spread throughout the Country
This unique publication will provide a wide-ranging and intellectually challenging reference to indigenous Australian art, covering documented archaeologically traditions, art styles of the early contact period and the nineteenth century, and the development of the remarkably diverse contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art practices that have attracted so much attention in recent years. The Companion will draw upon much original research on art and culture in remote Aboriginal communities, and on the emergence of Aboriginal art in urban institutions, markets, and exhibitions. Academics, graduates, and general readers will find concise and authoritative analysis on specific topics and regional traditions, unavailable even in specialist databases.
Exploring the diverse, subtle, dynamic, and volatile first encounters between Indigenous Australians and outsiders--including Macassans, Dutch, English, and French--this volume examines from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives the myriad elements of these cross-cultural exchanges and their profound impact on the first Australians.
Barbara Russell, a young woman from a white working-class family. A ruthless Premier Bjelke-Petersen enforcing legal discrimination. In this story of ideological conflict and racial discrimination laws, Barbara teams up with Mick Miller, an Aboriginal schoolteacher. They organize remote Australian Aboriginal people to fight Bjelke and the mining companies that encroach on their land. But Bjelke has a few tricks up his sleeve and uses all in his powers in this police state to stop them.
These stories were obtained at thirteen islands, within the archipelago of the Torres Strait, between Cape York, the northern point of Queensland, and the south coast of Papua New Guinea. The Islanders, despite nearly a century of continuous and increasing contact with European ways and thought, have been able to retain unbroken links with their past. It is these people, who over a period of four years, made a conscious effort to pass on to the general reader, whether they live in Torres Strait or elsewhere, part of their heritage which is embodied in legend and myth.
This important anthology, curated by Gomeroi poet and academic Alison Whittaker, showcases Australia's most-respected First Nations poets alongside some of the rising stars. Featured poets include Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Ellen van Neerven, Tony Birch, Claire G. Coleman, Evelyn Araluen, Jack Davis, Kevin Gilbert, Lionel Fogarty, Sam Wagan Watson, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Archie Roach and Alexis Wright. Divided into five thematic sections, each one is introduced by an essay from a leading Aboriginal writer and thinker - Bruce Pascoe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Chelsea Bond, Evelyn Araluen and Steven Oliver - who reflects on the power of First Nations poetry with their own original contribution. This incredible book is a testament to the renaissance of First Nations poetry happening in Australia right now.
For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions. Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the land through manipulation of water flows, vegetation and firestick practice. Not solely hunters and gatherers, the First Australians also farmed and stored food. They employed complex seasonal fire programs that protected Country and animals alike. In doing so, they avoided the killer fires that we fear today. Country: Future Fire, Future Farming highlights the consequences of ignoring this deep history and living in unsustainable ways. It details the remarkable agricultural and land-care techniques of First Nations peoples and shows how such practices are needed now more than ever.
Originally published in 1935, this is the first volume in the series. It was written entirely by Haddon himself, and contains a broad variety of historical, geographical, and ethnographical accounts regarding the region. A large number of illustrative figures are also contained, demonstrating the various aspects of life among the indigenous peoples. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in the development of anthropology and ethnology.
Chronicling the story of a senior Anmatyerre woman who became one of Australia's greatest contemporary artists, this collection of essays by national and international commentators reveal different ways to approach and interpret these artworks, which were created in an environment far away from the influence of the Western art tradition and have been widely acclaimed as modernist masterpieces.
Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion. Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices.
Recording Kastom brings readers into the heart of colonial Torres Strait and New Guinea through the personal journals of Cambridge zoologist and anthropologist Alfred Haddon, who visited the region in 1888 and 1898. Haddon's published reports of these trips were hugely influential on the nascent discipline of anthropology, but his private journals and sketches have never been published in full. The journals record in vivid detail Haddon's observations and relationships. They highlight his preoccupation with documentation, and the central role played by the Islanders who worked with him to record kastom. This collaboration resulted in an enormous body of materials that remain of vital interest to Torres Strait Islanders and the communities where he worked.
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