Aboriginal Culture

The History of Australia: From Indigenous Origins to a Modern Nation Australia is called the “land down under,” but how much do you really know about its past? Did you know that modern Australia started as a British prison colony? Or that for tens of thousands of years before that, Indigenous peoples lived there, building rich cultures and traditions? This book takes you through Australia’s history, from its first inhabitants to the arrival of European settlers to its fight for independence to its current role in world events. Learn about the convicts who built early settlements, the ...

Near the end of his life, novelist, essayist and poet James Cowan joined fellow author Arthur Versluis in five remarkable conversations on how his journeys into the Australian Outback and his years spent among the Aborigines are indelibly linked with his vision for the reinvigoration of literature and culture through what he terms metaphysical realism. Challenging, wide-ranging, moving, always stimulating, these conversations are indeed timeless.James G. Cowan (1942-2018) was author of numerous books, including the bestseller Mapmaker’s Dream, as well as titles on Australian Aboriginal ...

Boomerangs are far more than simple curved sticks; they are an extraordinary example of human ingenuity, blending survival, culture, science, and sport. Their history stretches back tens of thousands of years, from the mammoth-tusk hunting tools of Ice Age Europe to the sophisticated wooden designs of Aboriginal Australia. In Aboriginal society, boomerangs were essential tools for hunting, fishing, digging, and even fire-making, while also serving as canvases for art, ceremonial objects, and symbols of spiritual and cultural identity. The returning boomerang demonstrates a deep ...

What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.

When Detective Senior Constable Sarah Chen finds prominent Aboriginal rights lawyer David Namatjira dead at the bottom of Emily Gap, what appears to be a hiking accident quickly reveals itself as calculated murder. David's death coincides with the systematic ransacking of his Legal Aid office, where crucial files documenting mining company corruption have been stolen. His legal challenges cost Northern Territory Minerals millions while protecting sacred Aboriginal sites from illegal exploration, giving corporate executives powerful motives for eliminating their most effective opponent. But ...

When traditional owner Curtis Brennan is found dead among the sacred granite formations of Karlu Karlu, Detective Senior Constable Ruby Mackenzie expects a straightforward climbing accident investigation in Australia's remote Northern Territory. But climbing chalk on rocks that no Aboriginal person would ever touch tells a different story. Someone has been violating sacred sites for profit, and Curtis died trying to stop them. Ruby's investigation uncovers a thriving illegal tourism operation that has been exploiting Aboriginal culture for years, bringing unauthorized visitors to ceremonial...

Billabong Nulla-Nulla Steven is an Australian Aboriginal boy with a dream. A dream as powerful as any mans. A future life was calling but before he could step out and seek or grasp for that opportunity, he needed to meet and know his father and mother and why he had been left behind in Wyndham for so long. Left in his grandmother Gilly's care when just a month old he had no Dreamtime stories about his parents. So, when opportunity knocked, he set out to meet them and discover and endeavor to understand their walk down life's path. Venturing all over the Kimberley he meets many who know his ...

"Ivan Ertlov's first mystery thriller is dark, bloody and unique. Especially the private detective is completely different from what you might expect and has a crude sense of humour. I rate it 5 out of 5 possible stars!" - The Librarian and her Books "Above all, it is an exciting, gripping near-future thriller with a cleverly placed supernatural touch. A brisk read even for those who have nothing to do with games, an explicit recommendation for readers of mystery, action thrillers and revenge thrillers." - Phantastic Reading "Step down, Jack Reacher, here comes Pete O'Brannon!" - VLP ...

The world of the Australian Aborigines is so full of extraordinary force and beauty that the idea of natural miracles, or what we might call magic, can seem quite normal. So natural magic figures very strongly in their stories, and in their lives. However as people are part of nature too, selfishness, greed, jealousy; also love, courage and a sense of humour are readily described in nature just as in men and women.

Does earth have spirit or soul? This is a question being asked ever more frequently, especially by those interested in the future of the natural world and the development of consciousness. The alchemists said ‘the greater part of the soul is outside the body’, and indigenous cultures have felt that soul or spirit resides in Nature and the physical environment. Such notions have been dismissed by modernity as illusions, but we are beginning to have second thoughts about the animation of the earth. Science and rationality have not taught us how to love or care for the earth, and in the ...

This book is a new vision of the most divisive political issue in Australia today. Aboriginal politics are now dominated by demands for reconciliation, self-determination, and acknowledgment of culture. But these concepts – defined and promoted by an urban elite of educated Aboriginal activists – hide the bigger truth that most people of Aboriginal descent today are already integrated into the wider society and are doing well, if belatedly. More importantly, the Aboriginal industry fails to address the needs of the 20 per cent minority of their population who still live in despair.

Tiki is a God who in the dim long ago helped to build the world, and the whose carved image is now supporting the middle pillar of the house. His eyes of pawa-shell, which once commanded in the Ten Heavens and were full of fire and wisdom, glisten out of the silent twilight; they stare far, far into the Darkness, which Hine-nui-te-po is slowly spreading over the world; Hine-nui-te-po, the Great Mother of Night, who at one time was young and beautiful, and gave Life to Nature.

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu, and now he has brought together the research and compelling first-person accounts in a book for younger listeners. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the listeners to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived.

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu, and now he has brought together the research and compelling first-person accounts in a book for younger listeners. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the listeners to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived.