Aboriginal Australians, by Richard Boom (TPB, 1994, $2)
"In the creation of a new society there are always winners and losers... This book tells the history of Australia from the standpoint of those who were dispossessed... It reveals what white Australia lost through unremitting colonial invasion and tells the story of Aboriginal survival through resistance and accommodation... to a more central place in modern Australia"
Prehistory of Australia, by John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga (HC, 1999, $3)
"The authors take both chronological and regional approaches to describe 40,000 years of Australian Aboriginal cultures, languages, and practices... The authors also address such contemporary issues as Aboriginal control over archaeological fieldwork and the repatriation of human remains." How did the earliest humans get to Australia? What does the rock art mean? Why did most of the large marsupials become extinct, or massively shrink in size? What did the coming of stone tools and the dingo have to do with the cultural changes of the same time period. And what about Tasmania? This is a sweet book, very easy to read, and filled with both answers and questions to ponder.
Healing Our History: The Challenge of the Treaty of Waitangi, by Robert Consedine (TPB, 2005, $2)
In 1840 Maori chiefs were invited to meet with missionaries and representatives of the British Crown. The Maori signed a treaty that gave Britain the right to govern the Maori land, with the British promising to protect the Maori and "extend to them the same right and duties of citizenship as the people of England". Well, guess how things really turned out. When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1975, most Maori expected little change. Indeed nothing happened until 1985 when the Maori had gathered political power. Suddenly treaty issues were being discussed, issues such as sovereignty, power sharing, and their rights for land, fish, waterways, radio spectrums, flora and fauna, petroleum, foreshore and seabed. This book is written to educate white New Zealanders on the history of the indigenous people, of how White Privilege" has affected both whites and indigenous, and how the pain and betrayals of the past can be healed, so that New Zealanders can find their way to new personal and national identities. We can all learn much from this book.
Look for these books in the Australian section. (Avail. on 8/17)
