Aboriginal History Journal

Aboriginal History is an annual journal that contains interdisciplinary historical studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It promotes publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. The journal has been in publication since 1977.

The journal is co-published by Aboriginal History Inc., a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra.

For more information on Aboriginal History Inc., please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au. Aboriginal History journal is committed to the highest standards of ethics in academic research and publishing. We are particularly mindful of the specific ethical practices for undertaking research and publishing in relation to Australian Indigenous peoples.

Ownership and management

Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. It is governed by an Editorial Board, which meets three times a year. The Corporation also holds an annual general meeting.

The Board is responsible for all journal publishing and business decisions. The Board considers and ratifies all manuscript proposals submitted by the editorial team for the journal.

Aboriginal History journal has an editorial team of four who are responsible for the day-to-day editorial work: a senior and associate editor for journal articles and a senior and associate editor for book reviews.

Aboriginal History journal is co-published by ANU Press and Aboriginal History Inc. Co-published publications are also subject to the ANU Press Publishing Ethics and Publishing Malpractice statement.

Publishing schedule

Aboriginal History is published once a year, in December. Special issues may also be published either within or outside the normal publication schedule of the journal.

Access

Fully open-access scholarly publication is made freely available immediately upon publication. Authors are required to agree with this open-access policy, which enables unrestricted access and reuse of all published papers, with appropriate acknowledgement and citation.

Users are allowed to copy and redistribute the material in printed or electronic format and build upon the material, without further permission or fees being required, provided that appropriate credit is given. The copyright page of the journal will have further information on the specific copyright conditions of particular publications.

Copyright and licensing

Aboriginal History Inc. retains copyright over all published journals and the Aboriginal History Inc. logo.

ANU Press retains copyright over all journal layouts and cover designs that have been created by ANU Press. Where ANU Press has not created this content, this is indicated on the copyright page of the publication. ANU Press also retains copyright of all ANU Press logos and the ANU Press webpages.

Authors retain copyright over their papers, unless otherwise agreed or stated.

Creators of visual and other materials retain copyright over these materials, including photographs, maps, artworks, graphics, video, audio or any other material that might be included in an online publication.

Permission must be obtained to reuse any content that is not published under a Creative Commons licence or where the use of content is not covered by this licence.

Revenue sources

Occasional grants (e.g. Cultural Fund grants in 2015 and 2017 from the Copyright Agency), Copyright Agency remittances for use of copyright material, and remittances from RMIT and ANU Press for sales of Aboriginal History Inc. publications.

Author fees

There are no fees charged to authors for publishing work in Aboriginal History journal.

Peer review process

Aboriginal History journal manuscripts are peer-reviewed by experts and academics in the fields or disciplines relevant to the subject matter of the manuscript being reviewed. A rigorous double-blind peer-review process is used for all articles.

The peer-review process is fair, objective and transparent. Where there is a potential conflict of interest, peer reviewers are expected to remove themselves from the commission. (See Peer reviewer responsibilities and Conflicts of interest below.)

Respect of Indigenous Moral Rights and Intellectual Property

Aboriginal History journal has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with non-Indigenous peoples, principally in Australia but also transnationally. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the cognate fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history.

We model our approach to publication on two guidelines developed by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies:

Aboriginal History journal takes very seriously any allegations of improper research conduct or infringement of the copyrights and moral rights of Indigenous people.

Plagiarism and academic misconduct

Aboriginal History journal takes any allegations of academic misconduct concerning any submitted manuscripts or published papers seriously.

Reviewers or Board members are expected to report any suspected case of misconduct or plagiarism in a submitted manuscript to the publication editor or Editorial Board with sufficient information and evidence in order for an investigation to be initiated. Where plagiarism or misconduct is identified, Aboriginal History journal will act immediately to suspend publication of the manuscript under question and investigate any allegations until a clarification and successful decision or conclusion is reached.

If a member of the public suspects any case of plagiarism or academic misconduct in any of the articles, book reviews or other content in Aboriginal History journal, we encourage them to notify Aboriginal History Inc. immediately.

Any allegations will be reviewed by the Aboriginal History Inc. Editorial Board. Our investigation will include contacting the author/editor of the suspected manuscript or paper to obtain clarification, setting out the respective complaint or claims made.

Author responsibilities

To publish in Aboriginal History journal, authors must ensure their submitted manuscript meets specific requirements for quality scholarly publications.

The author must warrant that:

  • The submitted manuscript is original, has not been published previously and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in either print or electronic form.
  • The source of any copyright materials in any submitted manuscripts has been acknowledged, cited or quoted and appropriate permissions to use such copyright material have been obtained.
  • The work does not contain any libellous material.
  • Any interests, funding or affiliations that may impact on research findings and the impartiality of the submitted manuscripts are disclosed.
  • They understand the licence conditions applied to their published papers.
  • The submitted manuscripts are in respect of work conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and in compliance with all relevant legislation.
  • The submitted manuscripts will report only accurate and reliable data.

Authors must ensure that all persons who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the submitted manuscript will be listed as co-authors.

If others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the submitted manuscript, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the submitted manuscripts and have agreed to its submission for publication.

All authors must also disclose in the submitted manuscript all sources of financial support for the project that the submitted manuscript is written about in order to inform the Readers about who has funded research and on the role of the funders in the research.

Peer reviewer responsibilities

Peer reviewers are an essential part of the journal’s scholarly publishing process. They assist the publisher in determining which publications add value to the scholarly debate and ensure the integrity of the scholarly record. Due to the important role played by peer reviewers, it is essential that reviewers conduct reviews in an ethical and accountable manner.

It is the responsibility of the reviewer to:

  • Ensure they can return a review in a timely manner.
  • Declare any conflict of interest before accepting a manuscript for review.
  • Ensure that competing interests are declared to the Editorial Board before accepting a manuscript for review.
  • Read the full manuscript and provide feedback on all articles.
  • Respect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and not use information obtained during the process for their own or another’s advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others.
  • Not involve anyone else in the review process without first obtaining permission from the Editorial Board.
  • Remain unbiased by considerations relating to the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, origins of a manuscript or by commercial considerations.
  • Inform the Editorial Board if they find they do not have the necessary expertise to assess the relevant aspects of the manuscript.
  • Notify the Editorial Board if they suspect any breach of research or publication ethics immediately.
  • Prepare a report for the journal Editor identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript; providing any advice on revisions, edits, additions or omissions they think are required to improve the manuscript; advise the Editorial Board to accept, revise or reject the manuscript.

Aboriginal History journal employs a rigorous double-blind peer-review model. This model ensures that the authors do not know their reviewers, nor the reviewers the author(s). Authors may suggest potential reviewers to the Aboriginal History Journal Editor, but they are not made aware whether these reviewers were used.

Conflicts of interest

Aboriginal History journal undertakes to remove potential conflicts of interests whether identified before or after publications and expects our editors, authors, editorial board members and reviewers to also be alert to such issues.

Such conflicts may arise from employment, consultancies, stock ownership, affiliations, honoraria, paid expert testimonies, funding arrangements or financial holdings, or grants, patent application/registrations that may raise concerns about potential bias in research findings or editorial decisions.

Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible. If a potential conflict of interest is identified, the relevant party must declare the interest to the Senior Journal Editor or the Editorial Board and remove themselves from the process while the conflict is investigated. In particular:

JOURNAL EDITORS

Journal Editors will:

  • Declare if they have any conflict of interest when receiving a manuscript for consideration.
  • Ensure authors and reviewers report potential conflicts of interest that may influence, or be perceived to have influenced, their research findings and conclusions.
  • Have in place processes for dealing with submissions from themselves and other members of the Editorial Board.
  • Ensure no commercial, advertising or sponsorship arrangements exercise any influence over editorial decisions.

MEMBERS OF EDITORIAL TEAMS/BOARDS

Members of the Editorial Board will declare any conflict of interest before accepting a position on the Board, at the time of submission, declare their interest if they are seeking to publish their own work through Aboriginal History journal.

AUTHORS

Authors will declare any potential conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their submitted manuscript to the Journal Editor when they submit a manuscript.

REVIEWERS

Reviewers will declare any potential conflicts of interest to the Book Review Editor prior to undertaking any review.

Retractions and corrections

In the event an error or a case of academic misconduct is not detected until after publication, a retraction or correction will be issued as soon as practicable.

Authors and other interested parties must promptly report errors or inaccuracies in the officially published version of the journal. The Editor or the Editorial Board will be responsible for adding an erratum to the article or book review. The placement of the erratum will be at the discretion of ANU Press and will be made prominent.

Retractions will be issued in cases of academic misconduct, or in the case of major errors that mean a publication’s findings are not reliable. In this case, the publication metadata will remain on the website with a retraction notice stating the reason for the retraction and its date.

The authors will cooperate with the journal Editor or Editorial Board to retract or correct the published version of the article.

Archiving

Aboriginal History journal is made available to readers in multiple online formats and as print-on-demand hard copies in perpetuity. ANU Press has also partnered with CLOCKSS to digitally preserve its ebooks and ejournals and future-proof access to these publications.

Confidentiality

Editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and Aboriginal History Editorial Board. Editors will ensure that material submitted remains confidential while under review.

Complaints policy

We take seriously complaints or concerns about Aboriginal History journal, our Editorial Board, our Editors, or the activities or information related to Aboriginal History Inc.

All concerns related to errors or suspicion of academic misconduct should be reported in the first instance to the Aboriginal History Inc. Editorial Board which will follow the procedures outlined in this statement.

Authors who have concerns about the editorial or peer-review process are encouraged to discuss these issues with the Aboriginal History Inc. Editorial Board.

Concerns about the legal status of Aboriginal History Inc. publications, such as copyright, privacy or defamation should be submitted to the Editorial Board.

Contact: aboriginal.history@anu.edu.au

Editorial team

  • Editor: Ingereth Macfarlane
  • Book Review Editor: Annemarie McLaren
  • Copyeditor: Geoff Hunt.

Contact: aboriginal.history@anu.edu.au

Board members

  • John Maynard (chair), The Australian National University
  • Maria Nugent, The Australian National University
  • Lawrence Bamblett, The Australian National University
  • Rebecca Collard (Associate Book Review Editor), The Australian National University
  • Liz Conor, La Trobe University
  • Val Cooms, Griffith University
  • Brian Egloff, University of Canberra
  • Karen Fox, The Australian National University
  • Sam Furphy, The Australian National University
  • Niel Gunson, The Australian National University
  • Geoff Hunt (copyeditor)
  • Julia Hurst, Melbourne University
  • Dave Johnston, The Australian National University
  • Rani Kerin (Monograph Editor), The Australian National University
  • Harold Koch, The Australian National University
  • Shino Konishi, University of Western Australia
  • Ingereth Macfarlane (Journal Editor), The Australian National University
  • Ewan Maidment, The Australian National University
  • Isabel McBryde, The Australian National University
  • Ann McGrath (Vice-Chair), The Australian National University
  • Annemarie McLaren (Reviews Editor), Griffith University
  • Rob Paton (Treasurer/Public Officer), The Australian National University
  • Peter Read, The Australian National University
  • Tikka Wilson (Secretary, Website Manager)
  • Laura Rademaker (Associate Monograph Editor), The Australian National University
  • Ben Silverstein (Associate Journal Editor), The Australian National University
  • Martin Thomas, The Australian National University

Please send article submissions to aboriginal.history@anu.edu.au.

Articles of about 7,000 words in length (including footnotes and references) are preferred, but submissions up to 9,000 words will be considered. Please submit an electronic version of the paper (text only without embedded images or scans) in Microsoft Word or RTF format, along with a short abstract and author biography as a separate document.


Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 46 »

Edited by: Crystal McKinnon, Ben Silverstein
Publication date: July 2023
The articles in Volume 46 each take provocative and generative approaches to the challenge of historical truth-telling. Examining the public memory of massacres in Gippsland, Victoria, Aunty Doris Paton, Beth Marsden and Jessica Horton trace a history of contestation between, on the one hand, forms of frontier memorialisation articulated to secure colonial possession and, on the other, the sovereign counter-narratives of Gunai Kurnai communities. Heidi Norman and Anne Maree Payne describe Aboriginal campaigns to repatriate Ancestors’ stolen remains over the past fifty years, showing how these campaigns have proceeded along with and as part of nation-building movements towards land rights and self-determination. Their call for Aboriginal relationships with Ancestors to be represented in a National Resting Place aligns their research with these movements. We return to Gunai Kurnai Country in a piece authored by Rob Hudson and Shannon Woodcock, who show how the Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place has formed an important site and tool of community work towards cultural resurgence; the article itself demonstrates the value and importance of collaborative and co-designed research methods. The volume then includes a conversation between Laura McBride and Mariko Smith about their curation of the Australian Museum’s Unsettled exhibition, through which they responded to the 250th anniversary of Cook’s Endeavour voyage along Australia’s east coast by telling true stories that put Cook in his place.

Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 45 »

Edited by: Crystal McKinnon, Ben Silverstein
Publication date: April 2022
This volume begins with Michael Aird, Joanna Sassoon and David Trigger’s meticulous research tracing the well-known but sometimes confused identity of Jackey Jackey of the Lower Logan River in south-east Queensland. Emma Cupitt describes the multivocality and intertextuality of Radio Redfern’s coverage of Aboriginal protests in Sydney as the 1988 Australian Bicentenary celebrations took place elsewhere in the city. Similarly approaching sources for their multiplicity, Matt Poll and Amanda Harris provide a reading of the ambassadorial work performed by assemblages of Yolngu bark paintings in diverse exhibition spaces after the Second World War. Cara Cross historicises the production and use of mineral medicine—or lithotherapeutics—derived from Burning Mountain in Wonnarua Country, issuing a powerful call for the recognition of Indigenous innovation as cultural heritage. In a collaborative article, Fred Cahir, Ian Clark, Dan Tout, Benjamin Wilkie and Jidah Clark read colonial records against the grain to narrate a nineteenth-century history of Victorian Aboriginal relationships with fire, strengthening the case for the revitalisation of these fire management practices. And, based on extensive oral history work, Maria Panagopoulos presents Aboriginal narrations of the experience of moving—or being moved—from the Manatunga settlement on the outskirts of Robinvale into the town itself, on Tati Tati Country in the Mallee region of Victoria. In addition to a range of book reviews, we are also pleased to include Greg Lehman’s review essay concerning Cassandra Pybus’s recent award-winning Truganini: Journey through the Apocalypse, which considers the implications of our relationships with history and how they help to think through practices of researching and writing Aboriginal history.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 44 »

Edited by: Crystal McKinnon, Ben Silverstein
Publication date: May 2021
In this volume, Charlotte Ward’s narration of re-enactments of the Endeavour’s landing in Cooktown traces local processes of engaging with and producing histories that bring together stories of that landing with the much longer story of Guugu Yimithirr sovereignty. Heather Burke, Ray Kerkhove, Lynley A. Wallis, Cathy Keys and Bryce Barker analyse the extent of fear on the Queensland frontier through a historical and archaeological study of homes and huts and their fortification. In a collaborative article, Myfany Turpin, Felicity Meakins, Marie Mudgedell, Angie Tchooga and Calista Yeoh consider three performances of Puranguwana, a ‘classical’ Western Desert song that emerges from the death of Yawalyurru, a Pintupi man. Paige Gleeson offers us a new perspective on the well-known image of Warlpiri-Anmatyerr man Gwoja Tjungurrayi, known since the 1950s as ‘One Pound Jimmy’, an image featured on postage stamps and on the two dollar coin. And Gretchen Stolte’s study of Queensland Aboriginal Creations situates the production of boomerangs for sale as work of cultural importance, enriching understandings of Aboriginal artwork and its production.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 43 »

Edited by: Ingereth Macfarlane
Publication date: December 2020
Volume 43 opens with an unexpectedly timely essay. Tom Gara’s study of the influenza epidemic that reached Australia in 1919 expands consideration of its global effects to include the poorly documented impacts on Aboriginal people in South Australia. The study was written and finalised to mark the centenary, prior to the advent of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. In this dramatically altered context, Gara’s evidence becomes significantly comparative as well as an account of an under-researched aspect of past infectious disease spread. Annemarie McLaren’s article poses questions about the differing assumptions Aboriginal men and colonists made about their earliest travels together in country around Sydney Cove in 1791. McLaren interrogates Watkin Tench’s and John Hunter’s accounts of their joint travels with Colebee and Balloderry to explore how ‘guiding’ relationships first developed between Aboriginal people and expeditionary parties in New South Wales. Grace Karskens’ conversation with Mark McKenna about her engagement with the story of Nah Doong, a nineteenth-century Aboriginal woman living in colonial Penrith, NSW, offers ‘a masterclass in how to write history’. Careful reading against the grain brings Nah Doong’s experience alive in a rare, fleshed-out biographical picture of an individual woman. ‘Big John Dodo’ (c. 1910–2003) is respected as a ceremonial and cultural leader for Karajarri country, south of Broome, WA. Darren Jorgensen draws on family and personal interviews to re-position John Dodo Nangkiriny’s ‘transitional’ art forms, which do not emulate pre-colonial or contemporary forms and are produced with new materials. Beth Marsden provides a close reading of the campaign to resist construction of a ‘transit village’ in Morwell, Victoria, in the 1960s, illuminating various strands of assimilationist policy as well as multilayered political and grassroots resistance. Tim Rowse and Barry Leithhead re-examine the underlying assumptions held by Dr Cecil Cook in his career as a Northern Territory administrator and commentator (1925–69). Demonstrating the relationship between racial thought and liberalism in Cook’s policies and advocacy, they argue that Cook’s common function as a shorthand for ‘ideologies, policies and practices of government that seem at best misguided and at worst cruel and racist’ needs re-evaluation. In addition to a wide range of book reviews, this volume also has a review of the important Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 42 »

Edited by: Ingereth Macfarlane
Publication date: December 2018
In this volume, Peter Sutton provides a survey of the articles published by linguist Dr Luise Hercus (1926–2018) in Aboriginal History, honouring the contribution she has made to the journal since its inception. The seven articles this year highlight the wealth of sources that feed into historical research of Indigenous Australia. The role of performance in the events organised by the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) in 1957–67 in Sydney shows up the contest between state assimilationist goals and Indigenous participants’ insistence on distinction, continuity and survival (Jonathon Bollen and Anne Brewster). The then radical agenda – in a protectionist policy regime – of the advocacy group, the Aborigines’ Protection League in South Australia in the 1920s–30s, is examined in a detailed study of the group’s campaigns and campaigners (Rob Foster). A picture of colonial reception of Aboriginal performance and the public assertion of local Aboriginal cultural priorities in 1893 Darwin is developed in the historical contextualisation of a collection of Aboriginal artefacts found in the Marischal Museum, Aberdeen (Gaye Sculthorpe). A nuanced analysis of the relationship between the Catholic Benedictine Mission at New Norcia and the Western Australian Native Welfare Department draws on the correspondence between the Abbot of New Norcia and A.O. Neville (Elicia Taylor). A large body of reader responses to a recent online article on the deep history of Aboriginal Australia provides a way to map the strengths and weaknesses in the general Australian public’s apprehension of that long history (Lynette Russell and Billy Griffiths). A spatial history argues against the concept of ‘fringe camps’ and for a pattern of demonstrable continuities between precolonial, colonial and recent Aboriginal people’s favoured camp places and the locations of urban contemporary park spaces in Brisbane and townships in south-eastern Queensland (Ray Kerkhove). In the format of an interview, the themes concerning the writing of Aboriginal history and contemporary political debates that are developed in Tim Rowse’s recent book Indigenous and Other Australians since 1901 (2017) are explored (Miranda Johnson and Tim Rowse). Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 41 »

Edited by: Ingereth Macfarlane, Liz Conor
Publication date: December 2017
The articles in Volume 41 bring to light historical sources from the colonial frontier in Tasmania (Nicholas Brodie and Kristyn Harman) and South Australia (Skye Kirchauff) to provoke reassessments of colonial attitudes and expectations. Karen Hughes brings into focus little-known, intimate aspects of Indigenous women’s experience with African American servicemen on the World War II Australian home front. Diana Young’s study of accounts of Pitjantjatjara women’s careful productions in the Ernabella craft rooms in the mid-twentieth century deepens our understanding of a relatively neglected aspect of the art history of ‘first generation, postcontact Indigenous art-making among Australian Western Desert peoples’. Nikita Vanderbyl explores records of tourists’ visits to Aboriginal reserves in the late 1800s and early 1900s, focusing on the emotive aspects of the visits, and making the links between such tourism and colonialism. Janice Newton provides a close examination of the cross-cultural signs implicated in a documented ceremonial performance in early Port Phillip. Heather Burke, Lynley Wallis and their collaborators compare a reconstructed stone building in Richmond, Queensland, with other reputedly fortified structures, and find that the historical and structural evidence for this interpretation are equivocal, pointing to imaginaries of the violent frontier as much as tangible experience. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 40 »

Edited by: Liz Conor
Publication date: December 2016
In this volume, Katharine Booth and Lisa Ford present the details of a watershed Northern Territory legal decision. Angela Lapham challenges our understanding of the term ‘assimilation’ in her study of Stanley Middleton. Charmaine Robson looks at Australian leprosy control policy in the twentieth century. The ‘entanglements’ of Aboriginal and European people within farming and pastoral industries on Yorke Peninsula (Guuranda), South Australia, are recorded by Belinda Liebelt, Amy Roberts, Clem O’Loughlin and Doug Milera. The positive memories of Aboriginal residents on missions are interrogated by Laura Rademaker. She sifts through their petitions to mission authorities in the 1960s, uncovering the rare instances of Aboriginal voices asserted within the missionary archives. In a collaborative article, Heather Burke, Amy Roberts, Mick Morrison, Vanessa Sullivan and the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC) investigate Aboriginal–European early contact on the western Central Murray. Adopting a landscape perspective, they visualise the sociospatial processes of violent engagement that occurred between Aboriginal and European people along the Overland Stock Route. Archibald Meston, Southern Protector of Queensland Aborigines from 1898 to 1904, is brought to life by Judith McKay and Paul Memmott. Meston was the major architect of Queensland’s 1897 Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act. Meston’s venture as a showman of live Indigenous people, who he publicly paraded as ‘noble savages’, is shown to have shaped his policies and informed this influential legislation. In 1838, French Captain Abel du Petit-Thouars recorded his impressions of Australia. Colin Dyer provides a translation of the captain’s journal, providing a new resource in English for researchers. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 39 »

Edited by: Liz Conor
Publication date: December 2015
Volume 39 presents a special section on Aboriginal war service, edited by Allison Cadzow, Kristyn Harman and Noah Riseman. The contributors reappraise narratives and foster new avenues of inquiry, particularly on the impact of war service on families and communities, and explore how the entrance of Aboriginal men into Australian military service disrupted accustomed notions of defence of country. John Maynard extends this service back to the South African Anglo-Boer War. Andrea Gerrard and Kristyn Harman track the aftermath of the First World War for Tasmanian soldiers of Aboriginal descent. Philippa Scarlett challenges the ‘mateship myth’ of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) of the First World War. The denial of repatriation benefits fuelled Aboriginal people’s post-war disenchantment and the political agitation of the 1920s and 1930s, as Jessica Horton shows. She finds it was demand for land exacerbated by the Soldier Settlement Scheme that precipitated the closure of reserves, creating a new ‘home front’ for Gunditjmara veterans resisting ongoing dispossession. Kristyn Harman looks at correspondence between white women and Aboriginal soldiers during the Second World War as overseen by the Aborigines Uplift Society’s national comforts auxiliary. In the other articles in this volume, Sharon Delmege investigates policy implementation at Allawah Grove Native Settlement (1957–69). Anne O’Brien focuses on provisioning at Ernabella mission, South Australia in 1937. Steven Anderson looks at Indigenous executions in colonial South Australia, where public hangings were reintroduced, but only for Indigenous capital offenders. Greg Blyton casts light on the little-known story of Harry Brown, guide to Ludwig Leichhardt on two expeditions into the interior. Robin Barrington provides a corrective to the colonial visual archive in her examination of public constructions of Yamaji individuals by Daisy Bates and Alexander Morton. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 38 »

Edited by: Shino Konishi
Publication date: January 2015
Volume 38 features a special section on Western Australian Aboriginal history. Clint Bracknell translates and contextualises nineteenth-century Noongar songs. Amanda Nettelbeck considers the role of magistrates and justices of the peace in the ‘frontier legal networks’ of the Pilbara and Kimberley regions. Anne Scrimgeour traces the changing approach to the administration of Aboriginal people in the twentieth-century north-west through the biography of Laurie O’Neill, a former mounted policeman and travelling inspector. Craig Muller studies the history of the Wongatha of the north-east part of the Goldfields. Muller finds that Elkin’s account of his brief 1930 visit to the region was used as evidence in the recent Wongatha native title case without sufficient historical contextualisation. Together, the papers draw on rich archival sources, complicate our understandings of the way in which Aboriginal lives were controlled in the past, and highlight Aboriginal voices and perspectives. The other four articles exploring Aboriginal histories from other parts of Australia. Nicholas Brodie reconstructs the life of Dalrymple Briggs, a Vandemonian woman of mixed-descent. Noah Riseman examines the lives of three Aboriginal servicemen who all had media profiles as successful examples of assimilation. The other two articles examine different non-Indigenous accounts of Aboriginal people and culture. Marguerita Stephens critically examines discourses on Aboriginal infanticide in colonial Victoria. The history of tourist visits to Palm Island, an Aboriginal reserve in Queensland is the focus of Toby Martin’s article. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 37 »

Edited by: Shino Konishi
Publication date: December 2013
In this volume, Tracey Banivanua Mar’s analysis of three moments of Indigenous protest in Tahiti, Victoria and New Zealand presents a new transnational history of indigenous political agency in the 1840s. In his study of British explorers’ encounters with Indigenous people in Queensland, Michael Davis analyses the interplay and connections between Indigenous knowledge and western ideas about the local environments. Liz Conor offers a fresh perspective on our understandings of cross-cultural gender relations by tracing the ‘black velvet’ trope, which characterised settler ideas about Aboriginal women in Northern. John Maynard’s study of Percy Haslam, an amateur enthusiast of the Awabakal language and culture, whose records have enabled the revitalisation of the local language. Colin Dyer has contributed a new resource for researchers by translating the nineteenth-century French traveller, Eugène Delessert’s observations of Aboriginal people and culture, based on his visit to Sydney in 1844–45. There is an obituary of the highly respected South Australian elder Thomas Edwin Trevorrow. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 36 »

Publication date: January 2013
In this volume, Bain Attwood details the personalities and the politics surrounding the foundation and early years of the Aboriginal History journal and the intellectual stakes involved in the various disputes that emerged. Attwood has drawn extensively on the journal’s archives, as well as interviewed many of the players involved. Jonathan Richards’ article explores the evacuation of the Cape Bedford mission in Queensland during the Second World War. Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg is an ethnomusicologist. Her article examines the contemporary uses of church music and song to tell local histories and to express belonging to place at Hopevale, Queensland. Amanda Nettelbeck and Robert Foster provide a history of rationing on the nineteenth-century settler frontiers in Australia and North West Canada, showing the value of a comparative approach. Jennifer Jones’ piece about the editing of Ella Simon’s autobiographical text, Through My Eyes, provides original insights into the complicated politics and meanings of assimilation. Anne Scrimgeour illuminates an important event in twentieth-century history, looking at the Pindan mob’s challenge to the restrictive leper line in Western Australia. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 35 »

Publication date: November 2011
In this volume, Grace Karskens extends her cross-cultural research on early colonial New South Wales by focusing on the uses of European clothing by Aboriginal men. Leah Lui-Chivizhe describes the participation of Torres Strait Islander men in railway construction work in Western Australia. Noah Riseman focuses on the life of one man to explore the experience of institutionalisation as a member of the Stolen Generations and later as a member of the Australian armed forces. Both these articles reflect on the nature of personal and collective remembrance, the ethics of using oral testimony in writing Indigenous history, and the relationship between oral and archival evidence. Ian D. Clark’s article answers Michael Connor’s refutation of the ‘Convincing Ground’ massacre and gives his own interpretations and conclusions regarding the evidence. Christine Choo and Peta Stephenson, leaders of research into Aboriginal–Asian relations, have edited a special section on this topic, 30 years after James Urry’s Aboriginal History 1981 volume 5 on the same theme. They note in their introduction that the four papers together ‘retrieve pre-colonial and colonial relationships that place white settler narratives of Australia’s social development in a wider perspective. In the process, they challenge the ideological foreclosures and sometimes methodological timidity of mainstream nationalist histories’. Campbell Macknight published a piece in the 1981 volume on his research into contact between Macassans and Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land; in this volume, he reflects on the development of his own scholarship and on research in this area. Anna Shnukal did not contribute a piece to the 1981 volume, but in 1985 (Volume 9) she published an article on Torres Strait Islander creole. Her contribution this time focuses on Filipinos in the outer Torres Strait islands and the families they established with Indigenous women. Marriage is also the theme in Julia Martínez’s article, exploring marriages between Indonesian men and Indigenous Australian women. Victoria Haskins documents one Chinese family’s efforts to be allowed to employ Aboriginal workers in the early twentieth century. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 34 »

Publication date: January 2011
In this volume, Mitchell Rolls reconsiders the question of silence in Aboriginal history by examining a wide range of literature on Indigenous themes, which was produced during the period dubbed by W.E.H. Stanner as the ‘Great Australian Silence’. Felicity Jensz uncovers the significance of matrimony in Moravian missionaries’ attempts to Christianise Aboriginal people in the nineteenth century, and Anne McGrath traces the history and continuing legacy of relationships between Aboriginal and Irish people in Australia. Meg Parsons’ study is focused on Sir Raphael Cilento, an often overlooked figure who oversaw Queensland’s Aboriginal leprosy management strategies in the 1930s and the establishment of the Fantome Island leprosarium. Pamela McGrath and David Brooks examine William Grayden’s 1957 film Their Darkest Hour, and how it was interpreted by contemporary audiences, Indigenous activists and, finally, the Ngaanyatjarra people’s perceptions of the film now. Martin Thomas looks at the 1948 American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, the Indigenous response to it and its continuing legacy. Sylvia Kleinert discusses the little-known history of Bill Onus’s Aboriginal Enterprises, a tourist outlet that fostered an influential Indigenous art scene in Melbourne and its impact on Aboriginal identity formation in south-eastern Australia. Jessie Mitchell examines questions of Aboriginal cultural performance in her study of the Aboriginal reception of Prince Alfred’s 1868 royal tour. Finally, Petter Naessan gives a rich linguistic history of the name Coober Pedy, evaluating a range of sources each claiming different Indigenous etymological origins of the name. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 33 »

Edited by: Peter Read
Publication date: April 2010
In her recent magisterial history of early Sydney, Grace Karskens mused on a critical distinction in emphasis between settler history and Aboriginal history: ‘in settler history we seem to be searching constantly for beginnings’, she notes, ‘but in Aboriginal history in the colonial period so often the search is for endings’. This preoccupation with endings especially haunts the ‘storywork’ surrounding Woollarawarre Bennelong, one of the best known but least understood Aboriginal men of the early colonial era. Most of this storywork has figured Bennelong as a tragic soul – caught between two worlds, reconciled to neither, the victim of an addiction that was his only means of enduring the fall. Despite some variations in the telling of his life with the British colonists, the tragedy of his end usually dominates the overall tone. A reconsideration of one of the most significant Aboriginal figures in colonial history invites us to move away from the search for endings. It suggests a fresh start for the life of Bennelong. It also suggests a fresh start for the meaning of Bennelong in Australia’s modern imagination. If Bennelong’s life stands for any greater truth, it is that indigenous people begin new relations when history demands them as frequently and as variously as any other folk. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 32 »

Publication date: 2008
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 31 »

Publication date: 2007
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 30 »

Publication date: 2006
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 29 »

Publication date: 2005
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 28 »

Publication date: 2004
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 27 »

Publication date: 2003
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 26 »

Publication date: 2002
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 25 »

Publication date: 2001
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 24 »

Publication date: 2000
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 23 »

Publication date: 1999
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 22 »

Publication date: 1998
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra. For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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