by slparker » Wed 31 Aug, 2016 11:08 am
i have a reasonable library of australian history focused on aboriginal history. My library is heavily weighted towards tasmanian history - as that's where i grew up but I have a few suggestions.
general history or accounts of of Aboriginal ways of life:
[*]WEH Stanner's collection of essays 'After the dreaming and other essays', published by Black inc. is a great place to start with aboriginal worldview, description of kinship, religious, ceremonial and cultural life. he was an anthroplogist in the 1900s in North Australia. he is an extraordinarily good non-fiction writer but can get technical - although it is written for a general audience.
[*]As above - Bill Gammage's history of fire use by Australian Aboriginals can be dry and academic but fascinating reading
[*]The story of australia's people by Blainey - very good but somewhat sanitised in part
[*]Henry reynolds series of books on frontier violence - illuminating, impeccably researched, but can be polemical - perhaps should be read alongside blainey for a balanced view
[*]The first australians - accompanying book to the SBS series. Very good in that it is told from an aboriginal perspective, like it or not.
Tasmanian Aborigines:
general contemporary Tasmanian aboriginal history:
[*]Bonwick's 'Last of the Tasmanians' - written by a contemporary tasmanian historian. general hearsay accounts of frontier violence and aboriginal ways of life - available online as an ebook. can't be trusted but you get the feel for what actually happened in 1820 tasmania.
[*]Ling Roth's The aborigines of Tasmania - Written by a british anthropologist - ueseful because he gathered all the available ethnographic data (except for Robertson's journals) into one volume in the early 1900s. Good accounts of observations of tasmanian aboriginal way of life from baudin's french expeditions onwards, to milligans work but missing robertson's journals entirely. available online as a PDF/e-book. Dry and academic but authoritative in its way.
[*]West's tasmanian history - fascinating, authoratative, old, available online
[*]Plomley's 'Friendly mission' - the published diaries of GA Robertson in his commission to 'reconciliate' or round up the surviving clans of Tasmanian Aborigines in the 1830s. This offers insights into aboriginal hunting, mythology, cosmology, use of fire, inter-clan relations but is scarce in its detail for such a large book. Interesting to me because it is about the area where i grew up. Expensive, hard to read, the text to have, available from larger libraries.
[*]Plomley's 'weep in silence' is also in the same vein - about Tasmanian aboriginal history from 1830 onwards. A collection of contemporary journal articles it is also expensive and difficult to wade through but has insights into Tasmanian aboriginal ways of life.
[*]Plomleys 'Jorgen Jorgenson and the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land' Interesting reading, primarily about the western tiers and big river aboriginal people Jorgen Jorgensen was a dane who was a british convict, was once king of Iceland (seriously), ended up a drunk in campbelltown and has his likeness on Ross Bridge in central tasmania....
[*]Plomley's collection of language, essays, tribal divisions are all available online (with the exception of the tasmanian language and wordlists)
[*]Ryan's Aboriginal Tasmanians: comprehensive, flawed, inaccurate by design or laxity but probably the best single account of Tasmanian aboriginal history available
[*]Boyce's Van Diemen's Land. The best history of Tasmania - very good sections on tasmanian abotiginal people and frontier violence. The appendix is almost thrilling in its outrage of the final history of Tasmanian aboriginal people and the probity of windschuttle's attempt at debunking the black war.
[*]Van Diemen's Land by Murray Johnson - less successful than ryan or Boyce but more evenhanded than ryan. Contains nothing new.
[*]Nicholas Clement's Black War - excellent history of frontier violence in Tasmania. Very even handed approach, accessible and draws on comprehensive primary sources. A great read and ought to be a standard text in tasmanian high Schools, in my opinion.
[*]Reynolds 'Fate of a Free People' another fine history of frontier violence and dispossession
[*]Reynold's History of Tasmania. Not particularly good, Boyce is the go-to here.
[*]Sue Kee's Archeological series on Tasmanian aboriginal archeology of the midlands and north-east tasmania. Only available from the Launceston or Hobart Reference Library, or academic libraries. The history background is very comprehensive and includes plomley's work plus excerpts from diaries and letters of contemporaries such as Batman, Danvers, Anstey etc. Very good summary of what is known of Tasmanian aboriginal life.
[*]Fullers bookshop has published two superb books on Tasmanian aboriginal history - Levee, Line and Martial Law: A History of the Dispossession of the Mairremmener People of Van Diemen's Land 1803-1832 and Beyond awakening. The Aboriginal tribes of North West Tasmania: A history. these are both very, very good histories with a substantial amount of information on what is known about tasmanian aboriginal ways of life, trade routes, hunting patterns etc. Now out of print. Available from libraries, probably.
[*]Nic Haygarth - northern midlands history - some good history summarising what is available from other sources
[*]Port Dalrymple history - bethell - snippets of tasmanian aboriginal history of the launceston area
[*]Stancombes' Highway in Van Diemen's Land (Midlands highway history), as with Bethell some excellent snippets of tasmanian aboriginal history contained within
[*]The last man. A recent book on genocide in tasmania - a bit dry and academic.
Online:
Good well researched and written aboriginal history of the north tasmanian region (meander valley, western tiers) by Shayne breen, a Tasmanian academic. These are available on PDF online.
Queensland:
[*]Warrior by libby Collins - focused on a Queensland aboriginal resistance fighter in the colonial period - good account of the local aboriginal people
WA
[*] Jandamarra - focused on kimberley aboriginal resistance in colonial period. Fine book with good descriptions of aboriginal life in NW australia
NSW
[*]Blackfella's Point - similar to above about the Eden/twofold bay area - similar tales of dispossession and violence with some good accounts of indigenous life - well written