Reading list

The race on the fringe of the continent has been there about a hundred years, and stands for Civilization; the race in the interior has been there no man knows how long, and stands for Barbarism. Between them a woman has lived in a little white tent for more than twenty years, watching over these people for the sake of the Flag, a woman alone, the solitary spectator of a vanishing race. She is Daisy Bates, one of the least known and one of the most romantic figures in the British Empire. (from the blurb to the 1944 edition)

The story of a fifty-year relationship between a Vietnam veteran and an isolated clan in north-east Arnhem Land—a unique window into Australia’s deep past and precarious present, by one of our master storytellers.
The Passion of Private White describes the meeting of two worlds: that of the intensely driven anthropologist Neville White, and the world of hunter-gatherer clans in remote northern Australia with whom he has lived and worked for half a century, mapping their culture and history in breathtaking detail.

The Queen is Dead is a full-throated, impassioned argument on the necessity for an end to monarchy in Australia, the need for a Republic, and what needs to be done - through the Voice to Parliament and beyond - to address and redress the pain and sorrow and humiliations of the past. Momentous and timely, The Queen is Dead carries an urgent, undeniable and righteous demand for justice, for a reckoning, and a just settlement with First Nations people. Grant is the author of a number of other books, including Australia Day, Tears of Strangers, and Talking to My Country.

Three articles originally written in 1973, 1977 and 1981, and republished by permission of the author in Honest History. McQueen’s 1973 research used the resources of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

The history of the British army in Australia; from the arrival of the First Fleet to 1870 when the various Australian colonies started to take over their own defence.

Native Police detachments - mounted Aboriginal troopers led by white officers - would surround Aboriginal camps and fire into them at dawn, killing men, women and children. The bodies were often burned to destroy the evidence. Richards argues that the Native Police were a key part of a 'divide and rule' colonising tactic, that the force's actions were given the implicit approval of government and public servants, and that their killings were covered up and files ‘lost’.

What Can Statistics Tell Us about Frontier Violence? What Estimates have been made about Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Violent Deaths and How Satisfactory are the Methodologies? Do Statistics Provide an Adequate Indication of the Extent of Frontier Conflict? Is it better to ignore them?

Tells the history of military engagements between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians—described as ‘this constant sort of war’ by one early colonist—around the greater Sydney region from the arrival of a British expedition in 1788 to the last recorded conflict in the area in 1817.

The Vandemonian War was fundamentally a war between the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and those Tribespeople who lived in political and social contradiction to that colony. Brodie exposes the largely untold story of how the British truly occupied Van Diemen’s Land deploying regimental soldiers and special forces, armed convicts and mercenaries. This was a war of sweeping campaigns and brutal tactics, waged by military and paramilitary forces subject to a Lieutenant Governor who was also Colonel Commanding.

In late 2023, Australians will have their say in a referendum about whether to change the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Contains key documents and resources, latest news.

By Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo and acclaimed journalist Kerry O’Brien, this is a clear, concise and simple guide for the millions of Australians who have expressed support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but who want to better understand what a Voice to Parliament actually means.

The chapters cover precolonial and post-colonial history, language, kinship, knowledge, art, performance, storytelling, native title, the Stolen Generations, making a rightful place for First Australians and looking to the future for Indigenous Australia. A new introduction as well as a chapter on racism has been written especially for this handbook, and all information has been checked and updated.