Reconciliation Action Plan Resources
Overview
This section provides a range of resources relating to Australian Aboriginal history and heritage, including some resources related to the Dreamtime.
Resources
- Gnarla Boodja Mili Mili (Our Country on Paper)
Gnarla Boodja Mili Mili is designed to be a living document that can be updated and expanded overtime.
The map was compiled by the department and launched in partnership with the City of Perth. Its release coincides with the “International Year of Indigenous Languages”, which has been declared by the United Nationals General Assembly in order to encourage urgent action to preserve, revitalise and promote Indigenous languages.
- Right Wrongs '67 Referendum – WA 50 years on.
The 1967 Referendum was a vote put to the Australian people that asked two questions. The first is known as the ‘Nexus’ question and the second related to the alteration of discriminatory references toward Aboriginal people in the Constitution, enabling Aboriginal people to be counted in the census. In response to the second question the highest ‘Yes’ result was recorded in history, with 90.77 per cent of Australian voters in favour.
To acknowledge this momentous occasion 50 years later, the Western Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs’ Aboriginal History Research Unit has developed an information toolkit to provide a unique WA perspective of this event. To date much of the historical discourse surrounding the Referendum has centred on the Eastern States.
- Aboriginal Heritage Inquiry System
The Aboriginal Heritage Inquiry System (AHIS) provides information concerning Aboriginal heritage places in Western Australia.
The AHIS provides details about Aboriginal heritage places, such as:
- the location and extent of each place
- the assessment status of each place under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (the Act):
- any access restrictions to additional information that the department holds in relation to the place
- any gender restrictions.
Document Links
- Nyungar Tradition : glimpses of Aborigines of south-western Australia 1829-1914 by Lois Tilbrook
Nyungar Tradition by Lois Tilbrook is based on the South West Aboriginal Studies project (SWAS) - in which photographs have been assembled, not only from mission and government sources but also, importantly in Part ll, from the families. Though some of these are studio shots, many are amateur snapshots. The main purpose of the project was to link the photographs to the genealogical trees of several families in the area, including but not limited to Hansen, Adams, Garlett, Bennell and McGuire, enhancing their value as visual documents.
- They Served with Honour
Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in Australia about the contribution made by Aboriginal men and women in times of war. Whilst their involvement in our nation’s more recent conflicts is featured in many contemporary publications, little is known about Aboriginal service in World War I (1914-1918), and even less about their role at Gallipoli. It is estimated around fifty Aboriginal men fought during this campaign. The stories of those who served have to a large extent remained untold or, in some cases, are known only by the immediate families. Faced with the prospect of losing these stories forever, comprehensive research has been undertaken to provide an insight into the lives of thirteen Aboriginal Western Australian servicemen who fought at Gallipoli.
Videos
Web Links
- Aboriginal history (wa.gov.au) The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) provides comprehensive responses to Aboriginal people seeking historical family information through a formal family history application process.
- Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries Access historical records and information relating to Aboriginal Western Australians.
- Aboriginal family history (SLWA) Information and links relevant to Aboriginal family history from the State Library of Western Australia.
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies AIATSIS is significant as both a keeping place for ulturally important Indigenous knowledge and as a resource for improving individual understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. We are custodians of the largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander materials in the world.
- Aboriginal History Journal Aboriginal History is an annual journal that contains interdisciplinary historical studies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It promotes publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history. The journal has been in publication since 1977.
Nexus Resources
Maralinga, the Anangu Story by Call Number: J 499 ROOISBN: 9781741756210Publication Date: 2009-04-01An extraordinary illustrated history told from the Indigenous perspective and created through a series of workshops, extensive research and community consultation.
From Digging Sticks to Writing Sticks by ISBN: 0949426091Publication Date: 2001-01-01From Digging Sticks to Writing Sticks began to take shape in 1989 when senior women of the Warmun Community asked Sister Veronica to help them record their stories. This decision reflects the link the women made between sharing their narratives and their obligation to maintain and transmit their culture. The stories they chose to share have links with bot the Dreaming and with Christianity. Their accounts also focus on traditional life, contact with non-Aboriginal settlers, survival, the challenge of station life, the formation of the Warmun Community and the establishment of Ngalangangpum School.
Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait Islands by ISBN: 1864501146Publication Date: 2001-07-01Indigenous writers profile Australia's aboriginal culture. The guide includes mapped listings of tours and full coverage of the Torres Strait Islands.
Young dark emu : a truer history. by Call Number: 994 PASISBN: 9781925360844Publication Date: 2019Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe argues for a reconsideration of the hunter gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived, a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu, A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia's history pre-European colonisation.
Aboriginal legends from the Bibulman tribe. by Call Number: F BENISBN: 9780207179389Publication Date: 1981Stories collected from Authors grandparents; connected with named locations; no associated ritual; Goanna, Emu, Possum, Kangaroo, Crow, Magpie, Curlew, Cockatoo, Dog, Willie Wagtail, Robin, Swan, Snake, Parrot, Kookaburra, Pigeon, Dingo, Turtle, Gecko, Owl, Shag (cormorant)
Stradbroke dreamtime. by Call Number: F NUNISBN: 0207179387Publication Date: 1993Stradbroke Dreamtime is a collection of 27 short stories, ideal for reading in class, from acclaimed Aboriginal author Oodgeroo. The stories are traditional Aboriginal tales from Stradbroke Island, the Tambourine Mountains and from the old and new Dreamtime.
Dark emu : Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture by Call Number: 994 PASISBN: 9781911344780Publication Date: 2019History has portrayed Australia's First Peoples, the Aboriginals, as hunter-gatherers who lived on an empty, uncultivated land. History is wrong. In this seminal book, Bruce Pascoe uncovers evidence that long before the arrival of white men, Aboriginal people across the continent were building dams and wells; planting, irrigating, and harvesting seeds, and then preserving the surplus and storing it in houses, sheds, or secure vessels; and creating elaborate cemeteries and manipulating the landscape.
