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The first dual biography of Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip, two pivotal figures in Australian history – the colonised and coloniser – and a bold and innovative new portrait of both.
'Bennelong and Phillip were leaders of their two sides in the first encounters between Britain and Indigenous Australians, Phillip the colony’s first governor, and Bennelong the Eora leader. The pair have come to represent the conflict that flared and has never settled.
'Fullargar’s account is also the first full biography of Bennelong of any kind and it challenges many misconceptions, among them that he became alienated from his people and that Phillip was a paragon of Enlightenment benevolence. It tells the story of the men’s marriages, including Bennelong’s best-known wife, Barangaroo, and Phillip’s unusual domestic arrangements, and places the period in the context of the Aboriginal world and the demands of empire.
'To present this history afresh, Bennelong & Phillip relates events in reverse, moving beyond the limitations of typical Western ways of writing about the past, which have long privileged the coloniser over the colonised. Bennelong’s world was hardly linear at all, and in Fullagar’s approach his and Phillip’s histories now share an equally unfamiliar framing.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Intertwined Lives : Bennelong and Phillip’s Extended Encounter
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January - February no. 461 2024; (p. 14-15)
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography'The story of the extended encounter between Eora Aboriginal man Bennelong and Arthur Phillip, first governor of the British colony at Sydney, has often been told as both emblematic and predictive of the history of British possession of Australia, and of Aboriginal dispossession. Historians such as Grace Karskens and Keith Vincent Smith have peeled back the layers of this narrative to find ways of telling more complex, contextualised, and open-ended stories. Fullagar reaches a new stage in this journey, and the journey of Australian history more generally. She offers a fresh perspective on Bennelong and Phillip, on the nature of their exchange and the broader currents in which they swam.' (Introduction)
-
Misunderstood and Mis-remembered : What Is the Real Story of Bennelong and the Colonial Captain Phillip?
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 December 2023; -
When Two Worlds Collided
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 December 2023; (p. 17)
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography -
Bennelong and Phillip : Wrestling with Our Historical Assumptions through the Entangled Lives of Two Very Different Men
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 1 November 2023;
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography'Despite the inherent chance and coincidence of Australian history, there’s a certain sense of inevitability when we trace our national narrative in hindsight. The sequence of chapters in our textbooks and syllabuses seems logical and coherent. Colonisation follows European imperialism and exploration. Suffrage follows the discovery of gold. Federation is realised after a growing national consciousness.'
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Kate Fullagar : Bennelong and Phillip : A History Unravelled.
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2023;
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography 'Kate Fullagar puts the lives of Wangal man Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip into a larger context beyond the brief years they spent together.'
-
Kate Fullagar : Bennelong and Phillip : A History Unravelled.
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2023;
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography 'Kate Fullagar puts the lives of Wangal man Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip into a larger context beyond the brief years they spent together.' -
Bennelong and Phillip : Wrestling with Our Historical Assumptions through the Entangled Lives of Two Very Different Men
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 1 November 2023;
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography'Despite the inherent chance and coincidence of Australian history, there’s a certain sense of inevitability when we trace our national narrative in hindsight. The sequence of chapters in our textbooks and syllabuses seems logical and coherent. Colonisation follows European imperialism and exploration. Suffrage follows the discovery of gold. Federation is realised after a growing national consciousness.'
-
When Two Worlds Collided
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 December 2023; (p. 17)
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography -
Intertwined Lives : Bennelong and Phillip’s Extended Encounter
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January - February no. 461 2024; (p. 14-15)
— Review of Bennelong and Phillip 2023 single work biography'The story of the extended encounter between Eora Aboriginal man Bennelong and Arthur Phillip, first governor of the British colony at Sydney, has often been told as both emblematic and predictive of the history of British possession of Australia, and of Aboriginal dispossession. Historians such as Grace Karskens and Keith Vincent Smith have peeled back the layers of this narrative to find ways of telling more complex, contextualised, and open-ended stories. Fullagar reaches a new stage in this journey, and the journey of Australian history more generally. She offers a fresh perspective on Bennelong and Phillip, on the nature of their exchange and the broader currents in which they swam.' (Introduction)
-
Misunderstood and Mis-remembered : What Is the Real Story of Bennelong and the Colonial Captain Phillip?
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 December 2023;
Awards
- 2024 shortlisted Ernest Scott Prize
- 2024 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Non-Fiction Prize