Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down
Title: Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down
Author: Henry Reynolds
Publisher: NewSouth
Shortlist: Non-Fiction
Henry Reynolds’ ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the north down.
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined.
In Looking from the North, Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements, Reynolds shows how the colonisation of the north, officially beginning in 1861, was a very different venture to settlement in the south. He argues that it provides profoundly important lessons for the world we live in today.
Judges’ Report
What we call history is a thing greatly influenced by perspective. In his extraordinary career, historian Henry Reynolds has done more than most to change the perspectives that have led to accepted accounts of post-colonial Australia that have ignored the true and often violent nature of colonial occupation and dispossession in this country. With this new book, Looking from the North, he flips the map to show just how much of the story of Australian colonialism and Indigenous post-colonial history is told from the vantage point of south eastern Australia. Looked at from north of the Tropic of Capricorn a new, revelatory and profoundly significant perspective emerges. That is the story of this remarkable book.
Extract
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About the Author
Henry Reynolds
VPLA book photography by Shannyn Higgins
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards are proudly supported by the Victorian Government.
