AustLit

'The Colony of South Australia was established at a key moment in the history of British interactions with Indigenous peoples from around its empire: the House of Commons was conducting a Select Committee on Aborigines (1835– 37); the anti-slavery campaign had recently won a major victory with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833; and the prevailing wisdom in the Colonial Office was progressive and humanitarian. This mood was reflected in South Australia’s founding documents — in the Letters Patent, which defined the nature and extent of the new colony, and in the Proclamation, which was read by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December 1836. These documents asserted the moral right of the British to claim sovereignty over the new colony, but enshrined a commitment to provide legal protection to Aboriginal people as British subjects. The great challenge for the colonial government in realising this vision is one of the key themes of Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck’s fine book, Out of the silence: the history and memory of South Australia’s frontier wars.' (Introduction)

'This book is the first comprehensive biography of Curr and explores both his life and legacy. In particular, it considers his posthumous influence on the Yorta Yorta native title case (1994–2001), when his written account of the Yorta Yorta ancestors played a key role in the failure of the claim. By exploring Curr’s interactions with Aboriginal people—as a pastoralist and Aboriginal administrator—this book advocates a more nuanced, critical, and historically informed interpretation of Curr’s ethnological writings than was evident in the Yorta Yorta case.' (Source: Publishers website)

'This article explores the role of history in the Yorta Yorta native title case, with a particular focus on the nineteenth-century squatter Edward M Curr's role in the outcome. It begins by describing the crucial importance of historical inquiry to native title proceedings. An account of Curr's life follows, including details that have been lacking in the biographical record to date. The role of Curr's testimony in the Yorta Yorta case is then explored, leading to some final comments about the relationship between law and history. The article concludes that the prominent status granted to Curr's writings, at the expense of Yorta Yorta oral testimony, is symptomatic of a wider disjuncture between legal and historiographical approaches to knowing the past. ' (Source: 'Our Civilisation has rolled over Thee': Edward M. Curr and the Yorta Yorta Native Title Case)