Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines
By (author) Mitchell Rolls, Murray Johnson Foreword by Henry Reynolds
Publication date:
29 December 2010Length of book:
244 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressISBN-13: 9780810859975
The Australian Aborigines first arrived on the continent at least 60,000 years ago. They almost certainly landed on the northwest coast by sea from the nearby islands of the Indonesian archipelago. That first arrival may have been replicated many times over. The following exploration and settlement of a vast and varied continent was a venture of heroic proportions. The new settlers had reached southern Tasmania, the point farthest from the original landfall at least 30,000 years ago. By the early 17th century, when the first European seafarers arrived in Australian waters, the Aboriginal nations were living in every part of the continent, having colonized the tropical rainforests of the north, the vast arid deserts of the interior, and the cool and damp woodlands of the southeast.
The Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines relates the history of Australia's indigenous inhabitants from their arrival on the continent 60,000 years ago to the centuries long European colonization process starting in the 1600s to their role in today's Australia. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Australian Aboriginal peoples.
The Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines relates the history of Australia's indigenous inhabitants from their arrival on the continent 60,000 years ago to the centuries long European colonization process starting in the 1600s to their role in today's Australia. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Australian Aboriginal peoples.
This accessible, alphabetically organized dictionary manages to impart a great deal of information on the Australian Aborigines in relatively short entries. Topics include significant people; places; cultural topics; and general categories as well as political and activist organizations and political acts and movements. Related entries are noted in bold within the body of the entry, with see also information in capital letters at the end of some entries. The volume begins with an informative introduction, which is followed by a note on orthography, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, and a detailed chronology. The bibliography, which rounds out the dictionary, is lengthy enough to require a table of contents and introduction. Arranged in rough subject groupings, it lists books in 4 main areas ("Reference Works," "Ethnography and Anthropology," "Thematic Works," and "Works by Indigenous Writers"), which are then further subdivided into 22 more discrete categories. This readable, informative book provides an excellent starting place for anyone seeking insight into the history of Australia's indigenous population. More introductory and less narrowly focused than The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (2000), this is a sound purchase for most college and university collections.