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Listed under:  Society  >  Culture  >  Regional culture  >  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples  >  Aboriginal peoples
Audio

Brian Manning recalls the Wave Hill walk-off, 2007

This is an edited sound recording of Indigenous rights activist Brian Manning talking about the Wave Hill walk-off in the Northern Territory in 1966, when Gurindji workers on the Wave Hill cattle station went on strike. Manning tells how he was involved in organising the walk-off, assuring the Gurindji that, unlike previous ...

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Indigenous Australians fishing by torchlight, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australians spear fishing from three bark canoes at night. In each canoe are a man with a spear and a person holding a firebrand. On the river bank, 15 adults and a child are gathered around two fires, roasting ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Bedgi-bedgi (Bidgee-bidgee), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Bedgi-bedgi (also known as Bidgee-bidgee), said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe. He has patterned scarification on his arms, chest and abdomen, ...

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'John Batman's famous treaty with the blacks', c1914

This is a black-and-white engraving, measuring 40.4 cm x 57 cm, made by George Rossi Ashton (1851-1942) in about 1914. It depicts John Batman (1801-39) and an elderly Indigenous Australian man leaning over what is probably a treaty document on the decayed trunk of a large fallen tree. They are surrounded by 16 men, many ...

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Indigenous Tasmanian woman, Arra-Maida, 1802

This is a black-and-white print of a drawing made by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit on Bruny Island, off south-east Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), on 31 January 1802. It is a portrait of a young woman, Arra-Maida. She has short, woolly hair and is wearing an animal-skin garment that hangs over one shoulder, but ...

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Simon, Indigenous Australian from Victoria, c1858

This is a hand-coloured photographic print of an Indigenous Australian from Victoria, taken in about 1858. Measuring 24 cm x 19 cm, it is entitled 'SIMON. An Australian Aborigine of the Yarra Yarra tribe which opposed the landing of Batman 1835'. The man is pictured with a spear in one hand and a wooden club in the other. ...

Audio

Brian Clouston describes the success of 'We are going', 2007

This is an edited sound recording of Brian Clouston, the founder of Brisbane-based Jacaranda Press, discussing the publication in 1964 of 'We are going', a book of poetry by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (known at the time as Kath Walker). Clouston describes the 'phenomenal' success of the book, and outlines why he believes it was ...

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Distribution of blankets to Indigenous people in Brisbane, 1863

This pen-and-wash sketch, dated 24 May 1863, shows the distribution of blankets to Indigenous men and women in Brisbane, Queensland. A group of Indigenous people, mostly men, are waiting in line or sitting off to the side as police distribute blankets in front of the Police Magistrate's Court. There appear to be two mounted ...

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May O'Brien reflects on becoming an activist, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of an interview with Western Australian Aboriginal educator and author May O'Brien. She recalls beginning secondary school in Perth in 1949 when she was aged 17, and how she went on to become a teacher. She also relates how she campaigned to improve education for all Indigenous children ...

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Indigenous Australians spearing eels, c1817

This is a 17.6 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour of two men spearing fish in a river. One has caught an eel on his four-pronged spear. The landscape is heavily vegetated with mountains in the distance and there are rocky outcrops on either side of the river. Large trees frame the image.

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'Rapid Bay, encampment of Yankalilla blacks', 1847

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made in 1847 by James William Giles (1801-70) from a watercolour by George French Angas (1822-86), measuring 35.8 cm x 53.2 cm. It depicts a group of five Indigenous Australian men and a boy holding a spear on the beach at Rapid Bay, South Australia. They are sitting and lying in front ...

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Indigenous Australian men with weapons, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.8 cm watercolour of ten men carrying spears, spear throwers and shields as they walk along a dirt path. Some have clubs tucked into loincloths. Another group of five men can be seen further down the grassed hill.

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Indigenous Australian man with white body paint, c1790

This is a portrait of an Indigenous Australian man from the Port Jackson (Sydney) area of New South Wales, created in about 1790 by an unknown artist. He is depicted from the waist up, with white paint on his face, arms and chest. The text 'When angry and (as I suppose) intends to fight at a future period' is written below ...

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Indigenous Australian man warding off spears, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour showing an Indigenous Australian man holding a shield in front of himself, with fallen spears at his feet, as he faces a group of 14 men. Some are holding spears, apparently watching and waiting, while one is about to throw his spear at the man with the shield. Another group of 11 ...

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Indigenous Australians hunting black swans, c1817

This is a 17.5 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour of Indigenous Australian people hunting black swans among reeds near the water's edge of a large river. One man is holding a bird that is trying to escape and three people are spearing birds. At least four other people are almost fully obscured by the reeds. The river is surrounded ...

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Indigenous Australian family sheltering in a cave, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts an Indigenous Australian family sheltering from a storm in the entrance of a cave in New South Wales. A man holds a fish and a firebrand and a woman sits on a rock nursing a baby. A third adult squats before a fire, apparently ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Y-erran-gou-la-ga (Mousquita), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit somewhere near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Y-erran-gou-la-ga. There is painting on his chest and face and he is wearing a piece of reed or bone through a hole in the cartilage ...

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A proclamation to Indigenous Australians, 1829

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made in 1886, measuring 42.3 cm x 25 cm, based on an original timber panel made at the request of Governor George Arthur (1784-1854) in 1829. It depicts a comic-style narrative in four strips of drawings. Intended to be read from bottom to top, the drawings show: a British man shooting ...

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Indigenous Australians hunting kangaroos, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour of a hunter poised to throw a spear at one of a number of kangaroos; he is lying on his front behind a fallen tree, his head and chest raised and his right arm stretching back ready to throw the spear from a spear thrower. Four other hunters wait behind trees in the distance with ...

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Indigenous Australians feasting on a beached whale, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australian people on the New South Wales coast near the mouth of the Hunter River at Nobby's Head. There is a sailing ship on the horizon and nine people are on the beach, some looking on while two kneel beside ...