An indelible stain?: The question of genocide in Australia's history

by Henry Reynolds

Book by Reynolds, Henry

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Australia

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Henry Reynolds is currently an ARC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania at Launceston. He was for many years at James Cook University in Townsville. He is the author of many well-known books including The Other Side of the Frontier, Law of the Land, Fate of a Free People and Why Weren’t We Told?

Reviews

[zara may · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something I find slightly strange about this book is that after chronicling all this horrific history, it doesn't come to a particularly strong conclusion on whether there has been genocide in Australia. I get that this is partially because of the complexities of the international law definition of genocide, but it just seems to me that he presented enough evidence to say that there was a genocide. It's also likely that this would have been a much more contentious thing to argue 20 years ago than it is now, but I still think he could have gone a bit harder with his argument.

[Mr_wormwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The picture that emerges is complicated, to Reynolds' credit he delves into the many grey areas on this question. But ultimately Australia cannot avoid the charge of being a genocidal nation, even if it committed its acts genocide during the 20th Century with 'good intentions' (to civilize) and in the 19th in an ad-hoc, sporadic manner (to settle the land).