The Australian Wars, edited by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray, and Henry Reynolds is the companion book to the SBS documentary series from 2022, and “documents over a century of armed Indigenous resistance, colonial warfare and violence” drawing on the collective knowledge of Indigenous nations and people, and of white Australians across the Australian continent.
The book draws on the work of Australian historians and activists across multiple chapters covering both the timespan of contact and conflict of colonisation, and across the Australian continent. The interactions and conflicts between Indigenous nations and settlers changed significantly over time and place, and the essays in this book reflect how the dynamics between them changed, how resistance intensified and changed, and how these conflicts have been remembered (or not) and the impacts they had.
Starting in 1789 and the early 19th century with the first settlements in what will become New South Wales, Tasmania, and the south-west tip of Western Australia, through the 1830s to 1860s as New South Wales expanded, and the Victorian and South Australian colonies, through to the long and violent subjugation of Queensland from the 1860s and the Northern Territory and northern part of Western Australia. The Australian Wars does phenomenally well in showing that the stories of colonisation and conflict played out differently across time and throughout Australia depending on the capacity of Indigenous peoples to resist and the ability of settlers and governments to exert control. I found it especially interesting how Indigenous nations were able to push back against colonisation for much longer and more “effectively” than is often assumed. There is no one story of colonisation and no one Indigenous experience, and above all, their many stories and experiences deserve to be known and remembered.
It is important to note that the book does contain images and names of deceased persons and contains graphic details of historical events and racist language for those who may be sensitive to this.
I learned so much from reading this book, and as someone who has lived in Queensland but had heard a little bit about the Queensland Native Police and their actions, the sheer scale was confronting. The book is a well-written collection of work from multiple scholars that does a really good job of both telling an integrated story and emphasising that different nations and regions have different stories of colonisation and conflict.
This book is a vital answer to any claims that Indigenous nations in Australia did not or could not fight back against colonisation, and that the struggle over the lands that would become Australia is an important part of the nation’s history that must be remembered. The Indigenous peoples and nations did not cede sovereignty to settlers, and the land always was and always will be theirs.
Add a comment to: The Australian Wars: A history that deserves to be remembered