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Listed under:  Society  >  Culture  >  Regional culture  >  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples  >  Aboriginal peoples
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Indigenous Australians defending their land, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm watercolour showing about 40 Indigenous Australian people attacking a rowboat carrying five colonists. Most of the warriors are on a steep, rocky headland and those close to the water have spears raised. Two appear to be picking up stones while those further up the cliff watch on. About ten Indigenous ...

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Two Indigenous Australians hunting emus, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.8 cm watercolour of two Indigenous Australian men hunting emus, with one man about to throw a spear using a woomera, or spear thrower. The birds are grazing on a grassy plain in the middle distance to the right of the picture, and the men are screened from them by large rocks and scrub. In the distance ...

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Indigenous Australians gathering seafood, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 28 cm watercolour of Indigenous Australian people and their canoes on the New South Wales north coast. In the foreground three people are spearing fish, while one sits on the rocks watching an underwater swimmer and a person diving off the rocks. Another person walks from the water carrying two crayfish, ...

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Indigenous Australians hunting in trees, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 27.8 cm x 17.6 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It features an Indigenous Australian man about 5 metres up the trunk of a eucalypt tree, with his feet and one hand in notches on the trunk. He is holding a small axe in the other hand, ready to cut another notch. Below, a man holding ...

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Indigenous Australians using fire to hunt kangaroos, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.5 cm x 27.8 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australians using fire to flush out kangaroos in order to hunt them. One man is ready to throw a spear using a woomera (spear thrower) and another has his arm raised to throw a boomerang. In the background, ...

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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 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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Portrait of an Indigenous Australian man, 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. The man is shown from the waist up, standing with his back to the viewer and his head turned to the right-hand side. The man's facial features are exaggerated and his back ...

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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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Indigenous Australian man, Gnoung-a Gnoung-a ('Collins'), 1802

This is a colour print of a portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit somewhere near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a young Indigenous Australian man known as Gnoung-a Gnoung-a, and also as 'Collins'. He has short, curly hair and a light beard. His red headband is possibly ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Ourou-mare ('Bulldog'), 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 Ourou-mare, said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe, and known to the British settlers as 'Bulldog'. He has short, curly hair and a ...

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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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'Hut door', 1850s

This is a circular pencil drawing on coloured scraper board, measuring 22.7 cm in diameter. It was drawn in the 1850s by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80). It depicts a European family of mother, father and small daughter interacting with an elderly Indigenous Australian man and two Indigenous children in front of the door of ...

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May O'Brien talks about Aboriginal storytelling, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of an interview with Western Australian Aboriginal educator and author May O'Brien. O'Brien says that in her early life she was told Aboriginal stories orally and in drawings in the sand. She says that when she puts Aboriginal stories in writing, she thinks carefully about the words she ...

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May O'Brien recalls the traditional bush lifestyle of her childhood, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of an interview with Western Australian Aboriginal educator and author May O'Brien. She recalls the traditional bush lifestyle of her childhood in the eastern goldfields region of WA. She describes living in comfortable humpies made from bush materials and how she was taught traditional ...

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May O'Brien recalls school at the Mount Margaret Mission, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of an interview with Western Australian Aboriginal educator and author May O'Brien. She gives an account of the police practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families in line with government policies of the time. She recalls being fearful as a child of being removed and taken ...

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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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Bonita Mabo recalls Eddie Mabo’s land rights battle, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of Bonita Mabo, widow of Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo. She recalls how her husband declared he would fight for recognition as the owner of his traditional land on Mer Island, also known as Murray Island, in the Torres Strait after learning it was officially regarded as crown ...

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John Collins recalls illustrations by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), 2007

This is an edited sound recording of John Collins, former managing director of the Brisbane-based book publisher Jacaranda Press, recalling the way the Indigenous poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal (then Kath Walker) produced illustrations for her 1980 book 'Father sky and mother earth'. He describes how a casual remark led to her ...

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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 ...