Audio on demand

Hundreds of Aboriginal men were employed as police trackers from 1862. They enjoyed a regular income, but the work was risky and the pay and conditions terrible. Michael Bennett describes the system and makes the case for a compensatory scheme.

Museum collections exaggerate the traditional lives of Indigenous Australians. Here, Mike Pickering seeks to expand Indigenous history to include items that, though the product of western industry, were mostly used by Indigenous workers.

Christopher Lloyd explores and discusses the development, meaning, use, and usefulness of the concepts of ‘conquest’, ‘hybridity’, and ‘production regimes’ in the field of research into the history of settler/Indigenous relations and their consequences.

Alan O’Connor examines Anangu involvement in economic life from early records pre-contact, through the establishment of the mission Ernabella, in 1937, when dingo scalps were traded for flour, tea and sugar, to the enterprises that emerged in the 1970s.

Philip Jones explores the relations between Aboriginal people and ‘Afghans’, whose camel trains linked Central Australian outposts with supply centres and markets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Daryl Guse discusses archaeological research in north-western Arnhem Land that indicates early Indigenous participation in and trade with the Indonesian trepang maritime industry, and the adaptability of Indigenous coastal communities.

Alison French considers the role of camels and cars in the evolution of Namatjira’s art and the ways they fostered and sustained both the practice of art as well as myths and stereotypes that position artists and the economic values of their art.

Judy Lovell describes Keringke Arts Aboriginal Incorporation and the effect of the ‘Emergency Response’ and government reforms; and Ntwerle Aboriginal Incorporation, a new initiative promoting and hosting whitefella leadership training programs.

In the first half of the 19th century, at least sixty Aboriginal men from New South Wales were transported as convicts. Kristyn Harman discusses their labours within the convict system, the rationale for putting them to work, and the outcomes.

Maria Nugent explores the 130-year-long practice of shell-working by Aboriginal women at La Perouse in Sydney’s south, and how the makers have been able to create or find new markets by adapting their products to appeal to new customers.