Reading list

Here you will find a list of books, websites and other resources below dealing with the Australian Frontier Wars and First Nations. Our listings of Related sites and organisations and Latest news may also be useful.

Note that this list does not include articles in academic or similar journals. Many of the books listed, however, have comprehensive bibliographies, including articles.

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First Nations History
Independent Australia
Various authors
Regularly features articles relevant to First Nations history, the Voice and Frontier Wars
First Nations History
Inside Story
Various authors
Regularly features articles relevant to First Nations history, the Voice and Frontier Wars
Frontier Wars
Northern Territory
Jesustown: A Novel (2022)
Daley, Paul
A gripping multi-generational saga about Australian frontier violence and cultural theft, and the myths that stand between us and history's unpalatable truths.
First Nations History
Western Australia
Jilya: How one Indigenous woman from the remote Pilbara transformed psychology (2024)
Tracy Westerman
From humble beginnings in the remote Pilbara, psychologist and Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman has redefined what’s possible at every turn. Despite neither of her parents progressing past primary school, and never having met a psychologist before attending university, Tracy went on to become the first Aboriginal person in Australia to complete a PhD in Clinical Psychology, rising to become one of the country’s foremost psychologists.
Frontier Wars
Queensland
Killing for Country: a Family Story (2023)
Marr, David
A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia's frontier wars. David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history. This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today's Australia.
First Nations History
Queensland
Know Their Names (2025)
Lesley Synge
It concerns itself with the erasure of Aboriginal people from Australian history and examines the Queensland Government's Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station in the Central Highlands as a case study of erasure 1909-34.
First Nations History
Western Australia
Living in Hope (2017)
Byrne, Frank with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford
This is the story of the early years of my life. The story of a boy who was taken away from his mother and his family forever when he was just six years old. He had no say in it. His family had no say in it. The government had all the say in everything.
First Nations History
Long Yarn Short: We are Still Here (2024)
Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts
At just ten years old, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts was forcibly removed – stolen – from her family, community and kinship systems. After eight years in various out-of-home care placements, Vanessa fled the system, reconnected with kin and returned to country for the very first time. Only then did she begin to heal. In this book, Vanessa embarks on an extraordinary work of truth-telling, exposing the ongoing violence visited on Black children, their families and their communities by the systems that claim to protect them.
First Nations History
Looking Black (2022)
Martin, Kelrick and Dan Bourchier, Executive Producers; ABC Indigenous
Explores the impact of Indigenous storytelling at the ABC, and how it has created deep and honest conversations about the experience of First Nations journalists, storytellers, and presenters.
First Nations History
Indigenous Affairs: Government
Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O'Donoghue (2020)
Stuart Rintoul
Lowitja O'Donoghue is a truly great Australian. She is arguably our nation's most recognised Indigenous woman. A powerful and unrelenting advocate for her people, an inspiration for many, a former Australian of the Year, she sat opposite Prime Minister Paul Keating in the first negotiations between an Australian government and Aboriginal people and changed the course of the nation.
Frontier Wars
Queensland
Mapping Frontier Conflict in South-East Queensland (2016-17)
Kerkhove, Ray
Aims to visually (digitally) present the resistance wars in south-eastern Queensland 1820-50 in an easily-digestible and informative manner, by combining maps, images and brief explanations. Dr Kerkhove seeks to better illustrate the typical lifestyle of settlers and Aborigines caught in the resistance wars. He also seeks to develop historical maps that better reflect what was happening from an ‘Aboriginal resistance’ perspective.
First Nations History
Maralinga Tjarutja (2020)
Behrendt, Larissa, Director; Blackfella Films
The Maralinga people survive aggressive colonisation, including dispossession to enable atomic testing, and, through their tenacious spirit and cultural strength, fight to retain their country.