Aboriginal Victorians: A history since 1800

by Richard Broome

The fascinating and sometimes horrifying story of Aborigines in Victoria since white settlement, from one of Australia's leading historians.

Early settlers saw Victoria and its rolling grasslands as Australia felix happy south land a prize left for Englishmen by God. However, for its original inhabitants this country was home and life, not to be relinquished without a fierce struggle.

Richard Broome tells the story of the impact of European ideas, guns, killer microbes and a pastoral economy on the networks of kinship, trade and cultures that various Aboriginal peoples of Victoria had developed over millennia. From first settlement to the present, he shows how Aboriginal families have coped with ongoing disruption and displacement, and how individuals and groups have challenged the system. With painful stories of personal loss as well as many successes, Broome outlines how Aboriginal Victorians survived near decimation to become a vibrant community today.

The first history of black-white interaction in Victoria to the present, Aboriginal Victorians traces the story of Aboriginal people through consultation and interviews with Aboriginal communities and families and rich historical research, to produce a compelling and even-handed epic. It won the NSW Premier's History Awards Australian History Prize (2006) and the Victorian Community History Awards Best Print Publication Award (2007), and was short-listed for the Human Rights Awards Non-Fiction Award (2005).

'Richard Broome is to be congratulated for writing this history in a style that is easy to read, very informative and brings the past to the present.' - Jim Berg, JP, Gunditjmara man, founder and director of the Koorie Heritage Trust

'This finely crafted and wonderfully compassionate book deepens our understanding of the history of colonialism.' - Bain Attwood, Adjunct Professor, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University

Genres: History

528 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2024

Reviews

[Elliot Condous · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough history that taught me a lot. Great to learn about some of the notable indigenous people who fought for their rights, as well as communities like Coranderrk, Mooroopna, Lake Tyers and Framlingham. Lots of nice anecdotes that show how the brave people who managed to preserve their kinship ties and cultural practices through the peaks of persecution in the 19th/20th century have ensured that Aboriginal Victorian culture is finally having a renaissance.

Getting the full historical chronology really helps to understand what happened and why history unfolded the way it did. Decades of government policy that gets increasingly elaborate and authoritarian. Interfering in every aspect of Indigenous people's lives. Breaking apart families and destroying culture. Puts into perspective how minor the recent Victorian 'treaty' is. Reconciliation is only going to happen when people learn the truth and then proceed to act with true empathy and remorse. 6th generation blah blah blah farmers reconciling the fact that their great-great-great granddaddy murdered people to get his land, and deciding to give it back.

[Chris Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to read, very functional; it'd be a good one-two with the recent Yoorrook Report. I came out of it knowing a lot more about the past near-200 years of this land.

Two gripes:
-Where's Robbie Thorpe?
-It feels like the second edition updates weren't built into the first edition content, but rather incorporated separately as a final chapter.