AustLit

'We are already indebted to Richard Broome for examinations of encounters of Aboriginal Victorians and settler regimes, including his book Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, which appeared in 2005. In Fighting Hard he has advanced our knowledge and understanding of this crucial area with a history of the highly important organisation, the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL). The League has been the most prominent post-war Indigenous organisation in this state and, we learn, the longest continuous Aboriginal organisation in the country. Founded in 1957, the VAAL has served for close on six decades as an advocacy body for Victorian Indigenous rights and aspirations, and as a vital base for activists who influenced the formation of other state and national associations. Despite the high profile of the League there has been no previous scholarly history; Hyland House published a brief account thirty years ago, but its author had no access to the VAAL archives. In researching this story Broome has benefited considerably from collaboration with League members and their associates, who generously shared their knowledge through discussions and interviews. They have been aided in this collaborative endeavour by the agreement the League forged with the State Library of Victoria to house its substantial archive, a negotiation in which Richard Broome himself played a crucial part. In Fighting Hard, he offers a meticulously researched and accessibly written narrative of the League and its formidable efforts on behalf of fellow Indigenous Victorians and Aborigines nationally.' (Introduction)