AustLit

A study of the history of Indigenous Australians since European contact. We consider the ways in which the conceptual tools for understanding this history have changed over time, in response both to a changing political climate and the increasing impact of Indigenous perspectives on historical writing. Topics to be covered include: first contact; processes of invasion, dispossession, and settlement; Indigenous workers and labour relations; the gendered and sexual dimensions of colonisation in the Australian context; changes to government policy; the motivations for and experience and consequences of the large-scale removal of children from their parents; the constitutional changes of 1967; the struggle for land rights; housing, health, and education and Indigenous achievements in the arts, sport and society generally. There will be special attention to the dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through various cultural forms such as writing and the visual and performing arts, and through public protest and political action for Aboriginal rights.