Best of
Indigenous-History

2005

For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook


Waziyatawin Angela Wilson - 2005
    The authors begin with the belief that Indigenous Peoples have the power, strength, and intelligence to develop culturally specific decolonization strategies for their own communities and thereby systematically pursue their own liberation. These scholars and writers demystify the language of colonization and decolonization to help Indigenous communities identify useful concepts, terms, and intellectual frameworks in their struggles toward liberation and self-determination. This handbook covers a wide range of topics, including Indigenous governance, education, language, oral tradition, repatriation, images and stereotypes, and truth-telling. It aims to facilitate critical thinking while offering recommendations for fostering community discussions and plans for meaningful community action.

Frontier Justice: A History of the Gulf Country to 1900


Tony Roberts - 2005
    It appears at a particularly significant time given the intense current debate about Aboriginal history. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the story of the Australian frontier.”Professor Henry ReynoldsA challenging and illuminating history, Frontier Justice brings a fresh perspective to the Northern Territory’s remarkable frontier era. For the newcomer, the Gulf country—from the Queensland border to the overland telegraph line, and from the Barkly Tableland to the Roper River—was a harsh and in places impassable wilderness. To explorers like Leichhardt, it promised discovery, and to bold adventurers like the overlanders and pastoralists, a new start. For prospectors in their hundreds, it was a gateway to the riches of the Kimberley goldfields. To the 2,500 Aboriginal inhabitants, it was their physical and spiritual home. From the 1870s, with the opening of the Coast Track, cattlemen eager to lay claim to vast tracts of station land brought cattle in massive numbers and destruction to precious lagoons and fragile terrain. Black and white conflict escalated into unfettered violence and retaliation that would extend into the next century, displacing, and in some areas destroying, the original inhabitants.The vivid characters who people this meticulously researched and compelling history are indelibly etched from diaries and letters, archival records and eyewitness accounts. Included are maps with original place names, and previously unpublished photographs and illustrations.“A commanding study of race relations in the remote Gulf country. Tony Roberts uncovers compelling evidence of a litany of violence across some forty-odd years of rough borderlands dispossession in an encompassing, powerful and disturbing history.”Professor Raymond Evans

Flight of the Goose: a Story of the Far North


Lesley Thomas - 2005
    I loved this book (and) am recommending it to everyone I meet." ~ Sandra Ingerman, author of "Soul Retrieval""Moving and extremely well-written... Besides shamanic themes... the story addresses many other significant issues - climate change, environmental crisis, and indigenous rights - and it does so with both artistry and insight." ~ "Shaman’s Drum Journal" "Flight of the Goose" is an award-winning novel set in a traditional village and the wilds of the far north, where author Lesley Thomas grew up. 1971, the Alaskan Arctic. "It was a time when much was hidden, before outsiders came on bended knee to learn from the elders. Outsiders came, but it was not to learn from us; it was to change us. There was a war and a university, an oil company and a small village, all run by men. There was a young man who hunted geese to feed his family and another who studied geese to save them. And there was a young woman who flew into the world of spirits to save herself..."So relates Kayuqtuq Ugungoraseok, "the red fox". An orphan traumatized by her past, she seeks respect in her traditional Inupiat village through the outlawed path of shamanism. Her plan leads to tragedy when she interferes with scientist Leif Trygvesen, who has come to research the effects of oil spills on salt marshes - and evade the draft. Told from both Kayuqtuq's and Leif's perspectives, Flight of the Goose is a tale of cultural conflict, spiritual awakening, redemption and love in a time when things were - to use the phrase of an old arctic shaman - "no longer familiar"."What an extraordinary novel... (Thomas) deals with shamanism and sorcery in a very realistic way..." ~ "Sacred Hoop Magazine" "An) exquisite example of storytelling... A gifted writer with a sense of Alaska Native culture and tradition..." ~ "First Alaskans Magazine""A serious work of modern literature... Portrays a world in which traditional values clash with modern expectations." ~ "Alaska Anthropological Association""Masterful... Remarkable... Gripping...The authenticity palpable... A joy, a big broad deep river of a book, a work of substance and great beauty of both vision and style... I was moved by the characters and their fates as I have not been by a novel in a long time." ~ Richard Hoffman, author of "Half the House""Flight of the Goose" won first place in several literary contests. It is endorsed by Alaska Native Elders, anthropologists, scientists, writers and shamans.Read at universities and schools, book-clubs and in academic libraries worldwide