Diving deep into our timeless Indigenous past
A collection of essays by leading historians and thinkers explores Indigenous histories of caring for places and people over millennia.
Deep History: Country and Sovereignty is a collection of thought-provoking writings on the tussle between colonial and First Nations histories and sovereignties.
It is much more than a scholarly work and is accessible yet challenging to all who have pondered how these two vastly different accounts and perspectives of history can be reconciled.
This compendium is expertly edited by leading historians and thinkers – internationally renowned ANU scholar, Professor Ann McGrath, and Bidjara elder of the Carnarvon Gorge area and UQ Professor Jackie Huggins.
Each chapter features leading historians and thinkers from Australia, New Zealand and throughout the Pacific who break down complex concepts and give compelling reasons for taking a long-term view of Indigenous pasts that go beyond human memory, rather than limiting ourselves to a colonial perspective.
It also provides a window into the importance of respectfully acknowledging First Nations’ sovereignty. If you’ve ever pondered what the term “sovereignty was never ceded” truly means – then this collection is a great start from a number of different vantage points.
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The book is divided into sections to enable the reader to absorb such complexities in turn, with the chapter by Anna Clark and Beth Marsden showing how the historians who wrote Australian school textbooks effectively excluded Indigenous pasts, largely because their concepts of time were so different.
They explain how, with the new national curriculum’s account of Deep Time, First Nations ways of “knowing” can be better understood rather than excluded and ignored. The challenge, though, is enabling teachers to successfully present these cross-cultural complexities.
There are archaeological perspectives of living Indigenous pasts, in contrast to Western traditions. Personal stories and experiences combine with scientific analysis into compelling arguments for a broader interpretation of history that includes us all.
For example, how this changes the way we view the world itself, how rivers are much more than water – but rather living entities that are part of our common wellbeing. Examples from Oceania, the Cook Islands and Aotearoa reveal how food practices are actually an expression of Indigenous sovereignty.
Deep Time is a constant theme in the book and there are a range of creative approaches to provide a glimpse of understanding of the past from an Indigenous perspective. This allows us all to see how history is beyond what is contained in books. That it is inscribed on the land, waterways and skies that surround us.
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One section examines the languages of rock art, and how Indigenous Knowledge Holders see rock paintings as so much more than art. These timeless works are also a library, an archive of knowledge and a classroom. In this chapter, historian Laura Rademaker collaborates with rock art specialists Sally Kate May and Joakim Goldhahn and archaeologists to form a picture of how rock paintings function as history.
With historical narratives so fraught from an Indigenous perspective, it’s not surprising that many Indigenous authors choose to use fictional writing as a way to express their understanding of time and sovereignty.
One of the more fascinating chapters looks at Tara June Winch’s novel The Yield and how she weaves together the deep past, the settler colonial past, the present and possible futures.
Revelations of the power of Indigenous memory in oral history abound, including accounts of sailors abandoned by colonial explorers who were cared for by local communities, and great walks in the early days of Australian nationhood by Aboriginal “clever men” to the opening of Federal Parliament.
Hopefully, this book helps progress conversations and understandings about the timelessness of Indigenous history
Deep History: Country and Sovereignty is a timely and courageous tome for Queensland, particularly after the recent abrupt closure of the Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry. It highlights the importance of truth-telling in “modern” discourse, and how vital it is to look backwards before looking to the future.
But personal stories are what gives this book its impact. Jackie Huggins starts her chapter with vivid descriptions of her family history and Country, and the ramifications of the Aboriginals Protection Act on where they could go, who they could marry and where they could work.
We are so lucky that Huggins’s uncle, Bidjara elder Fred Conway, provided her with cultural and spiritual insights as her advisor over decades, starting her deep affection for history and ensuring we, the reader, are now invited to learn these stories.
Hopefully, this book helps progress conversations and understandings about the timelessness of Indigenous history and how we can better acknowledge this. It’s challenging but rewarding – and worth reading slowly to absorb its ramifications – how Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories can better communicate with each other.
Deep History: Country and Sovereignty, edited by Ann McGrath and Jackie Huggins, UNSW Press, $49.99.