History : Australia & Oceania

In Jackson's Track Revisited Carolyn Landon returns to the story told by Daryl Tonkin in Jackson's Track (Penguin, Australia, 1999) – the tale of his life in the great Gippsland forest living among Aboriginal timber workers. Just as his family hoped, Tonkin's memoir has created the space for more stories. In Jackson's Track Revisited, the voices of Aboriginal people who lived at the Track mingle with those of the White Australians who tried to 'improve' their lives in the 1950s, the era of assimilation. An exploration of the historical factors surrounding Tonkin's story leads to discussion of the Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board, the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League and the policy of assimilation that was so prevalent in mid-twentieth century Australia. This concise book contains many surprises. The new stories take complex twists and turns as Landon explores the motives of all the players – and this involves revisiting Tonkin's own memories. As Landon seeks others' interpretations of events, she also analyses her own changing understandings, uncovering the prejudices she, as interviewer, researcher and historian, has brought to the project. The testimony of one Aboriginal participant is particularly unforeseen and forthright. It shows that the way the Kurnai people see themselves has escaped the constructions White Australians have placed upon them ever since invasion. Finally, Jackson's Track Revisited focuses on the friendship between Landon and Pauline Mullett, daughter of Daryl Tonkin. Mullett leads Landon into her existing culture – a culture which many White people believed no longer existed – helping Landon to find meaning in all the stories. more...

Price: $11.30

4RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Battalion's second tour in Vietnam more...

Price: $39.95

The year is 1977, and Dinny Japaljarri remembers a time when the Northern Territory was a very different place. Twenty five years on, many of the events in this book now survive only in the memories of a generation that has passed, or is passing, away. Their stories, however, live on — told here in the vibrant tradition of Aboriginal oral history, from the transcripts and recordings that form the basis for this fascinating and important document. From first contact with Macassans then Europeans, through two World Wars and beyond, Peter and Jay Read’s collection of stories stands as a unique record of Aboriginal accounts of the conflict and co-existence that have defined the flavour of the Territory. more...

Price: $10.45

An impeccably researched and well-written history of the Mitchell Library, this is also the fascinating story of the man whose personal collection of Australiana became, in effect, Australia's memory bank. more...

Price: $47.95

The story of a Japanese war bride. Michi tells of the difficulties war brides faced in Australia when general hostility towards Japan as an enemy nation was still strong. more...

Price: $28.00