Pioneers & settlers: The Aboriginal Australians

by Catherine H. Berndt

150 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1978

Reviews

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing but only because I thought it was going to be about real people rather than what seems to be high school text book analysing and concluding and generalising rather than bringing that period of Australian history to light. One of those books that tell you what to think instead of showing how things were. It felt empty of life, its tone pedagogic and dictatorial. There is a detailed description near the start about the illustrations and how they interrelated that interfered with my own experience of them because instead of simply absorbing them and letting the story they told unfold I kept going back to check how I should be looking at them according to the writers in case I missed something since the authors took such pains to tell me as reader what I must see. If I am correct and it is a school text then it probably succeeded according to what our educational system deemed necessary for young minds. Sadly. As I found it totally devoid of life, which is what I think is the best thing about reading history. Three stars for intellectual effort and because I know some people do enjoy that sort of approach.