Anna Haebich

This major work reveals the dark heart of the history of the Stolen Generations in Australia. It shows that, from the earliest times of European colonization, Aboriginal Australians experienced the trauma of loss and separation, as their children were abducted, enslaved, institutionalized, and culturally remodeled. Providing a moving and comprehensive account of this tragic history, this study covers all Australian colonies, states, and territories. The analysis spans 200 years of white occupation and intervention, from the earliest seizure of Aboriginal children, through their systematic state removal and incarceration, and on to the harsh treatment of families under the assimilation policies of the 1950s and 1960s. The resistance struggle and achievements of Aboriginal people in defending their communities, regaining their rights and mending the broken circles of family life provides a compelling parallel story of determination and courage.

Broken Circles

In Spinning the Dream, multi-award-winning historian Anna Haebich re-evaluates the experience of Assimilation in Australia, providing a meticulously researched and masterfully written assessment of its implications for Australia's Indigenous and ethnic minorities and for immigration and refugee policy.

Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970

Spinning the Dream

Dancing in Shadows explores the power of Indigenous performance pitted against the forces of settler colonisation. Historian Anna Haebich documents how the Nyungar people of Western Australia strategically and courageously adapted their rich performance culture to survive the catastrophe that engulfed them, and continue to generously share their culture, history, and language in theatre. In public corroborees, they performed their sovereignty to the colonists, and in community-only gatherings they danced and sang to bring forth resilience and spiritual healing. Pushed away by the colonists and denied their culture and lands, they continued to live and perform in the shadows over the years in combinations of the old and the new, including indigenised settler songs and dances. Nyungar people survived, and they now number around 40,000 people and constitute the largest Aboriginal nation in the Australian settler state. The ancient family lineages live in city suburbs and country towns, and they continue to perform to celebrate their ancestors and to strengthen community well-being by being together. Dancing in Shadows sheds light on the little-known history of Nyungar performance. [Subject: Theatre Studies, Sociology, History, Australian History, Aboriginal Studies]

Histories of Nyungar Performance

Dancing in Shadows

Peter Read

Frances Peters-Little

In this absorbing collection of papers Aboriginal, Maori, Dalit and western scholars discuss and analyse the difficulties they have faced in writing Indigenous biographies and autobiographies. The issues range from balancing the demands of western and non-western scholarship, through writing about a family that refuses to acknowledge its identity, to considering a community demand not to write anything at all. The collection also presents some state-of-the-art issues in teaching Indigenous Studies based on auto/biography in Austria, Spain and Italy.

Indigenous Biography and Autobiography

Doreen Mellor

Many voices: reflections on experiences of indigenous child separation.

Reflections on Experiences of Indigenous Child Separation

Many Voices

There was no single Stolen Generation, there were many and Broken Circles is their story. This major work reveals the dark heart of this history. It shows that, from the earliest times of European colonisation, Aboriginal Australians experienced the trauma of loss and separation, as their children were abducted, enslaved, institutionalised and culturally remodelled.

Anna Haebich

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