Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines


Book Description

Collection of traditional Aboriginal stories from South Australia, written David Uniapon, an early Aboriginal activist, scientist, writer and preacher, who appears on the Australian $50 note. The stories originally appeared in 'Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals', but were attributed to W. Ramsay Smith, FRS, anthropologist and Chief Medical Officer of South Australia. For this edition the stories have been re-edited, with the cooperation of Uniapon's descendants, and for the first time appear as the work of their true author. The editors contribute a substantial introduction that gives the historical and cultural context of Uniapon's work, and the story of this publication. Includes photos, glossary and bibliography. Muecke is Professor of Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney. Previous works include 'Reading the Country' and 'Paperbark: A collection of Black Australian writing'. Shoemaker is Dean of Arts at the Australian National University. Previous works include 'Black Words, White Page' and 'Mudrooroo: A critical study'.




Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines


Book Description

For many of their campfire tales, the aboriginal people of Australia looked to the skies, where they found a twinkling text of morals and stories within their own version of the zodiac. Today, the starry birds, fishes, and dancing men that provided a backdrop to life Down Under for thousands of years have found a new popularity beyond Australia. With this colorful compilation of oral traditions, readers can savor the tales as they were told by their aboriginal narrators. Footnotes throughout the text clarify occasional obscurities, providing background on aboriginal life and customs as the need for explanation arises. For the most part, however, the author allows the myths to speak for themselves, without any attempt to support or disprove anthropological theories. The myths range in nature and tone from reverent recountings of the origins of the world and human life, to legends about the roots of religious and social customs, to fanciful and humorous animal fables. Unabridged republication of Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, Ballantyne Press-Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd., London, n.d., ca. 1930. Index. 63 black-and-white illustrations.




Australian Legendary Tales


Book Description

Reproduction of the original: Australian Legendary Tales by K. Langloh Parker




More Australian Legendary Tales


Book Description

Collected from natives belonging to Murrumbidgee, Darling, Barwon, Paroo, Warrego, Narran, Castlereagh Rivers, Braidwood, Yass and other districts to the Gulf country in Queensland; Author has confined herself as far as possible to the Noongahburrah names to stop confusion over dialects.




From the Edge


Book Description

In March 1797, five British sailors and 12 Bengali seamen struggled ashore after their longboat broke apart in a storm. Their fellow-survivors from the wreck of the Sydney Cove were stranded more than 500 kilometres southeast in Bass Strait. To rescue their mates and to save themselves the 19 men must walk 700 kilometres north to Sydney. That remarkable walk is a story of endurance but also of unexpected Aboriginal help. From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories recounts four such extraordinary and largely forgotten stories: the walk of shipwreck survivors; the founding of a 'new Singapore' in western Arnhem Land in the 1840s; Australia's largest industrial development project nestled amongst outstanding Indigenous rock art in the Pilbara; and the ever-changing story of James Cook's time in Cooktown in 1770. This new telling of the central drama of Australian history ;the encounter between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, may hold the key to understanding this land and its people.




The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections


Book Description

This volume of original essays brings together, for the first time, histories of the making and of the makers of most of the major Indigenous Australian museum collections. These collections are a principal source of information on how Aboriginal people lived in the past. Knowing the context in which any collection was created-the intellectual frameworks within which the collectors were working, their collecting practices, what they failed to collect, and what Aboriginal people withheld-is vital to understanding how any collection relates to the Aboriginal society from which it was derived. Once made, collections have had mixed fates: some have become the jewel of a museum's holdings, while others have been divided and dispersed across the world, or retained but neglected. The essays in this volume raise issues about representation, institutional policies, the periodisation of collecting, intellectual history, material culture studies, Aboriginal culture and the idea of a 'collection'.




Blacklines


Book Description

Written by established and emerging Indigenous intellectuals from a variety of positions, perspectives and places, these essays generate new ways of seeing and understanding Indigenous Australian history, culture, identity and knowledge in both national and global contexts. From museums to Mabo, anthropology to art, feminism to film, land rights to literature, the essays collected here offer provocative insights and compelling arguments around the historical and contemporary issues confronting Indigenous Australians today.




The Politics Of Suffering


Book Description

'Incandescent, emotional, tragic and challenging' - Marcia Langton In this groundbreaking book, Peter Sutton asks why, after three decades of liberal thinking, has the suffering and grief in so many Aboriginal communities become worse? The picture Sutton presents is tragic. He marshals shocking evidence against the failures of the past, and argues provocatively that three decades of liberal consensus on Aboriginal issues has collapsed. Sutton is a leading Australian anthropologist who has lived and worked closely with Aboriginal communities. He combines clear-eyed, original observation with deep emotional engagement. The Politics of Suffering cuts through the cant and offers fresh insight and hope for a new era in Indigenous politics.




Serious Whitefella Stuff


Book Description

How does Indigenous policy signed off in Canberra work—or not—when implemented in remote Aboriginal communities? Mark Moran, Alyson Wright and Paul Memmott have extensive on-the-ground experience in this area of ongoing challenge. What, they ask, is the right balance between respecting local traditions and making significant improvement in the areas of alcohol consumption, home ownership and revitalising cultural practices? Moran, Wright and Memmott have spent years dealing with these pressing issues. Serious Whitefella Stuff tells their side of this complex Australian story.




Songlines and Fault Lines


Book Description

Visitors to the Red Centre come looking for the real Australia, but find a place both beautiful and disturbing. There is wilderness, desire and an Aboriginal philosophy of home. But there is also the confusing countenance of the Australian frontier, a meeting place between black and white, ancient and modern. Songlines and Fault Lines explores the Red Centre through the eyes of those who have walked it, in six remarkable stories that have shaped our nation. It follows Aboriginal Dreamtime Ancestors along a songline, trudges with John McDouall Stuart as he crosses the continent, and walks the Finke River in the footsteps of anthropologist T.G.H. Strehlow. It keeps pace with conservationist Arthur Groom as he reimagines the country's heart as tourist playground, ponders a philosophy of walking with British travel writer Bruce Chatwin, and then strolls the grog-troubled streets of Alice Springs with Eleanor Hogan. Retracing time-worn pathways and stories of Australia's centre, Glenn Morrison finds fresh answers to age-old queries.