The Aborigines of Tasmania's Furneaux Group


Book Description

A composite of accounts of whaling and sealing, including the A.L.Meston essay on 'Half-castes of the Furneaux Group'. They came from across the globe in tall ships, in billowing sails, iconic of an era hell-bent on supplying the colonies and the giant cities of the northern hemisphere with their insatiable industrial needs. The many out of print publications to which I have referred, are conservative in their appraisal of the sealing and whaling hey-day of Tasmania, particularly the expansive bays and estuaries of the south and the islands of Bass Strait, the Furneaux Group. But it was the universal expression of the day of those authors, not to paraphrase in any emotional terms, the end result of that period of exploitation.They came, they slaughtered and regarded their new-found paradise as no more than their 'happy hunting-grounds' & moved on...for no other reason than that of the industrial pragmatic...there was nothing left. This publication salvages works otherwise lost to posterity.







Roving Mariners


Book Description

For most Australian Aboriginal people, the impact of colonialism was blunt—dispossession, dislocation, disease, murder, and missionization. Yet there is another story of Australian history that has remained untold, a story of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of Aboriginal people seizing the opportunity to profit from life at sea as whalers and sealers. In some cases participation was voluntary; in others it was more invidious and involved kidnapping and trade in women. In many cases, the individuals maintained and exercised a degree of personal autonomy and agency within their new circumstances. This book explores some of their lives and adventures by analyzing archival records of maritime industry, captains' logs, ships' records, and the journals of the sailors themselves, among other artifacts. Much of what is known about this period comes from the writings of Herman Melville, and in this book Melville's whaling novels act as a prism through which relations aboard ships are understood. Drawing on both history and literature, Roving Mariners provides a comprehensive history of Australian Aboriginal whaling and sealing.




Ronnie


Book Description

"Ronnie: Tasmanian Songman is the heartwarming story of musician, storyteller and craftsman, Ronnie Summers. He hasn't had it easy, but in the lines of his face and the twinkle in his eye lies the spirit of a proud Tasmanian Aboriginal elder. Today, he is at the forefront of the Tasmanian cultural renaissance. He is a survivor in every sense of the word."--Publisher description.




The Aboriginal People of Tasmania


Book Description

Introductory notes on origin, material culture, social organisation, religion, trade, art; early contacts and resistance to Europeans; contemporary Aboriginal community; extensively illustrated.







From Fear to Hope: Alternative Australian Narratives on War and Peacemaking


Book Description

This book scrutinises ‘peace’ and ‘war' through Australian lenses. It uncovers a deeper understanding of these terms and reflects a desire to bring to light alternative Australian ideas of war and peacemaking. Certain stories have eclipsed others that add importantly to Australia’s history. This Quaker initiative considers a plurality of voices and the ‘truths’ they purport. It unpacks the act of ‘memorialising' to discover the marked impact we make in our efforts to hold on to meaning and to our past. What have been the effects of our responses to the maxim ’Lest we forget’?




Unearthed


Book Description

A new, revised and updated edition of this wonderful book that won the South Australian Premier's Award for Non-Fiction, the Victorian Premier's Award for a First Book of History and the Canberra Critics Circle Award for Literature. 'This is a powerful and passionate exploration of cross-cultural history, and it is also an intriguing detective story. Taylor skilfully interweaves experience and memory, narrative and genealogy, politics and place so that this island saga becomes a history of the national psyche.' - Tom Griffiths . 'UNEARTHED is a wonderful piece of scholarship ... warm, humane and deserving of a wide and intelligent readership.' - Journal of Australian Studies. 'One of the most original and exciting thinkers in Australian history today'. - Australian Historical Studies. This new edition reveals previously disguised names.




First Australians


Book Description

First Australians is the dramatic story of the collision of two worlds that created contemporary Australia. Told from the perspective of Australia's first people, it vividly brings to life the events that unfolded when the oldest living culture in the world was overrun by the world's greatest empire. Seven of Australia's leading historians reveal the true stories of individuals—both black and white—caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia's most transformative period of history. Their story begins in 1788 in Warrane, now known as Sydney, with the friendship between an Englishman, Governor Phillip, and the kidnapped warrior Bennelong. It ends in 1992 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. By illuminating a handful of extraordinary lives spanning two centuries, First Australians reveals, through their eyes, the events that shaped a new nation. Note: This is the unillustrated version ofFirst Australians.




Making Waves


Book Description

This anthology celebrates 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, with contributions from twenty-four leading Australian writers who have also appeared at the Festival. Writers include Kate Grenville, Peter Goldsworthy, Christopher Kremmer, Anita Heiss, Roger McDonald, Nick Earls and Thea Astley, and topics addressed range from the deeply personal to the powerfully political. At a time when discussion can be read as sedition and free expression is increasingly muted, writers' festivals are important forums for independent intelligent discussion, something the Byron Bay Writers Festival has provided from its inception. Writers address the things that matter to them, as writers and as Australians, and contributions range from essays to short stories and a poem. Like the Festival itself, the anthology is by turns (and sometimes all at once) passionate, considered, witty and intellectual and provides a fascinating overview of Australian writers today.




Recent Books