Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/46581

Title

A prehistory of Australia's history wars: the evolution of Aboriginal history during the 1970s and 1980s

Author(s)

Veracini, Lorenzo

Abstract

While an extensive debate has recently addressed more contemporary contributions to historical scholarship, the historiographical background to Australia's History Wars has rarely been appraised. This article proposes an interpretative narrative of the evolution of Aboriginal history during the 1970s and 1980s. While before the late 1960s a systematic historiography of Aboriginal-white relations did not exist, these decades have witnessed the emergence and consolidation of Aboriginal history as an established academic discipline. The 1970s saw the 'detection' of Aboriginal persistence and resistance and the historiographical tradition established during this decade insisted on the contested nature of the invasion process. Conversely, during the 1980s, an interpretative tradition stressing Indigenous agency, transformation and adaptation shifted the focus of historiographical attention.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 52, no. 3 (Sep 2006), pp. 439-454

Publication year

2006

Keyword(s)

Aboriginal Australians;  Australia;  Government;  History;  Historiography;  Politics

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing

ISSN

0004-9522

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.2006.00428.x

Copyright

Copyright © 2006 The author. Journal compilation copyright © 2006 Department of History, School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Peer reviewed