AustLit

'Inga Clendinnen was a historian whose primary research interest was the exploration of the social conditions of extreme violence in different periods and societies. She was born Inga Vivienne Jewell, the youngest of four children in a working-class family in Geelong in 1934. She read English and history at the University of Melbourne, coming under the influence of Max Crawford, and earned a first-class degree in 1955. In that same year, at the age of twenty, she married John Clendinnen, a philosopher of science at the University of Melbourne. They had two sons. She was tutor in the history department at the University of Melbourne from 1955 to 1968. In 1969 she took up a post in the newly-founded La Trobe University, where she worked in the congenial company of colleagues open to global history informed by the social sciences.'  (Introduction)

'These three books add to a growing scholarly literature on white peoples’ involvement in and support for Aboriginal rights and welfare in Australia. Indeed, scholarship on humanitarian whiteness in Australia is perhaps the most developed of all the settler contexts in which minority Indigenous peoples’ welfare, rights, and sovereignty are at issue. Why this might be the case is not directly addressed by any of these authors but would be worth thinking about comparatively in future studies. Further, in Australia, scholars from a range of disciplinary perspectives have engaged the study of whiteness and white peoples’ involvement in Aboriginal issues. The first two books discussed in this review are histories of the mid-twentieth century, based in archival research and existing historical scholarship. The third is an ethnography drawing on the anthropologist’s own experience as a medical doctor in northern Australia in the early 2000s, and engaging with scholarship in postcolonial and critical whiteness studies. Read together, the three books suggest intriguing changes in the meaning, framing, and performance of humanitarian (or, later, anti-racist) whiteness over the course of the twentieth century in Australia.'  (Introduction)

'Charlie Ward’s A Handful of Sand is an epic historical work, meticulously researched and beautifully written, with at its heart the events that shaped the lives of the Gurindji in the lead-up and aftermath of the historic walk-off. Ward takes us through the events in close detail that surround the iconic moment in 1975 when an Australian Prime Minister passed a ‘handful of sand’ to a Gurindji elder.'  (Introduction)

'This is a fine, invaluable book. Its topic is one of the many forgotten stories of the sporting accomplishments of Australian Aboriginal people – in this instance a cricket team made up of Noongar (Nyoongah) men from the Benedictine Mission of New Norcia, Western Australia who played so well in the early 1880s that they became known as ‘the Invincibles’. Bob Reece provides an account that is at once careful, lucid and beguiling as he traces the rise and fall of the New Norcia team from 1879 to their final games in 1906. Reece’s focus is on their remarkable success against what were previously deemed the best cricket teams in the colony of West Australia – the Metropolitan Cricket Club of Perth, and sides representing Fremantle and the township of York. Many games are described in detail, with separate chapters devoted to the key seasons when the Noongar men played the finest cricket in the colony.'  (Introduction)

'Human memory, it would seem, can prove seriously deficient when it comes to remembering the contribution made by Indigenous peoples to white men’s wars. In Australia, as the authors of this volume argue, much has been forgotten: Indigenous participation in World War I has become ‘a forgotten memory’ (9), Korea has become the ‘Forgotten War’ (26), while the stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans of the Vietnam War, ignored altogether during the campaign for Aboriginal rights, have likewise subsequently been ‘forgotten by the majority of Australians’ (92). Through painstaking archival research and revealing personal testimony, this book goes a long way towards bringing this neglected aspect of Australian Indigenous history to our attention.' (Introduction)

'Little of Eliza Fraser’s life was spent in Australia, but her name has become part of its colonised landscape. So, too, has her story. Shipwrecked off the coast of Australia in 1836, she lived for several weeks with local Aboriginal people, the Butchulla, traditional custodians and owners of the island that now bears her name. Her husband perished but Eliza survived, enduring – by her own account – abuse and drudgery before being rescued and restored to civilised society. Sensational accounts of her ordeal ensured her story a lasting place in colonial mythology, reinforced and reinvented in the twentieth century when her ‘captivity’ was made the theme of paintings by Sidney Nolan, a novel by Patrick White, and a memorable 1970s film.'  (Introduction)

'The Convict’s Daughter is a historical biography of Mary Ann Gill, a first-generation Australian woman born to convict parents in Sydney, New South Wales. Written over a period of nine years, and driven, in part, by her ancestral connection to the main character, Kiera Lindsey offers an innovative addition to the historical writings on the period. The opening chapters of the book introduce us to Mary Ann as a fifteen-year-old girl who is determined to marry gentlemen settler, James Butler Kinchela. The ensuing scandal and events that follow are set against the tumultuous political and social conditions of the 1840s as the colony attempted to progress beyond its penal origins. Written from the perspective of this remarkable young woman, Lindsey avoids traditional historical conventions that often rely on the views of official documentation and their authors, to ensure the day-to-day experiences of colonial life remain the focus of the book – experiences which notably demonstrate the importance and lasting influence of women in the growth and success of Australia’s fledgling colonies.' (Introduction)