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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'North West Australia - in the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges, formerly known as the King Leopold Ranges between 1879 and 2020, is the setting for the story of Aboriginal leader Jandamarra and his fight against white invasion of his country.
'Jandamarra, who was also known as Pigeon, had been a blacktracker of great prowess in the Kimberleys before he suddenly turned against the whites. The tribes in his territory were classed as outstanding aboriginal types, and the gang he raised after killing a mounted constable in 1894 was formidable not only in numbers but in cunning and resourcefulness... (his) brilliant strategy, his coldly calculated opportunism, his use of interlocking cave-systems in the Leopolds for getaways, his courage and, above all, his remarkable ability to control his fellow-natives, presented threats beyond the capacity of local patrols to handle.
'Idriess suggests that if Jandamarra had had just a little more time in the early stages of his campaign to organise his forces, he might have succeeded in driving white men out of the Kimberleys altogether. - Sydney Morning Herald' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Finding Fault : Aborigines, Anthropologists, Popular Writers and Walkabout.
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cultural History , vol. 28 no. 2/3 2010; (p. 179-200) 'The popular middlebrow magazine Walkabout was published between 1934 and 1974. Its principle aim was to promote travel to and within Australia and to educate Australians about their continent. It aspired to be an Australian geographic magazine, and to this end it focussed on inland and remote Australia, and natural history. For this reason, and because it was published throughout a period, particularly in the early decades, when only those Aborigines living afar from populated regions were recognised as Aborigines, many of Walkabout's articles were about Aborigines or, more commonly, made mention of them. There are very few critiques of Walkabout, but those that do exist are critical of its portrayal of Aborigines. Notwithstanding that there are many reasons to find fault, it is possible to read this material in a more salutary light, even against the apparent intention of at least one of the contributors, Ernestine Hill. This article considers the work of a number of popular writers and two of the anthropologists who contributed to Walkabout, and finds reason to be less critical and more cautious in our assessment of their narrative representation of Aborigines than is generally allowed. The period of analysis is from 1934 to 1950.' (Editor's abstract)
-
On My Bedside Table
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 1 March 2008; (p. 28)
— Review of A Fortunate Life 1980 single work autobiography ; Outlaws of the Leopolds 1952 single work non-fiction -
History as Texts : Pigeon the 'Bushranger'
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Textual Spaces : Aboriginality and Cultural Studies 1992; (p. 60-75) 'One of the main problems for Aboriginal history, as I see it, is to authenticate the appropriate discourse for its transmission, and this issue has been hotly debated. At one point the 'authentic' accounts of Aboriginal history were firmly locked in academic standard English. But going back to 1981 we find an Aboriginal working party for the Bicentennial History Project challenging the assumptions of historians that history and the language in which history is presented are somehow independent of each other: 'When the cues, the repetitions, the language, the distinctively Aboriginal evocations of our experience are removed from the recitals of our people, the truth is lost to us. (Langton, 1981)) (60)
-
On My Bedside Table
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 1 March 2008; (p. 28)
— Review of A Fortunate Life 1980 single work autobiography ; Outlaws of the Leopolds 1952 single work non-fiction -
Finding Fault : Aborigines, Anthropologists, Popular Writers and Walkabout.
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cultural History , vol. 28 no. 2/3 2010; (p. 179-200) 'The popular middlebrow magazine Walkabout was published between 1934 and 1974. Its principle aim was to promote travel to and within Australia and to educate Australians about their continent. It aspired to be an Australian geographic magazine, and to this end it focussed on inland and remote Australia, and natural history. For this reason, and because it was published throughout a period, particularly in the early decades, when only those Aborigines living afar from populated regions were recognised as Aborigines, many of Walkabout's articles were about Aborigines or, more commonly, made mention of them. There are very few critiques of Walkabout, but those that do exist are critical of its portrayal of Aborigines. Notwithstanding that there are many reasons to find fault, it is possible to read this material in a more salutary light, even against the apparent intention of at least one of the contributors, Ernestine Hill. This article considers the work of a number of popular writers and two of the anthropologists who contributed to Walkabout, and finds reason to be less critical and more cautious in our assessment of their narrative representation of Aborigines than is generally allowed. The period of analysis is from 1934 to 1950.' (Editor's abstract)
-
History as Texts : Pigeon the 'Bushranger'
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Textual Spaces : Aboriginality and Cultural Studies 1992; (p. 60-75) 'One of the main problems for Aboriginal history, as I see it, is to authenticate the appropriate discourse for its transmission, and this issue has been hotly debated. At one point the 'authentic' accounts of Aboriginal history were firmly locked in academic standard English. But going back to 1981 we find an Aboriginal working party for the Bicentennial History Project challenging the assumptions of historians that history and the language in which history is presented are somehow independent of each other: 'When the cues, the repetitions, the language, the distinctively Aboriginal evocations of our experience are removed from the recitals of our people, the truth is lost to us. (Langton, 1981)) (60)
Last amended 24 May 2022 15:29:34
Subjects:
- Kimberley area, North Western Australia, Western Australia,
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