Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of Place

Description

Blackfellas' Point lies on the Towamba River in south-eastern New South Wales. As the river descends rapidly from its source on the Monaro plains, it winds its way through state forest, national park and farming land. Around twenty-five kilometres before it reaches the sea, just south of Eden, it passes through Towamba, the small village in which Mark McKenna now owns eight acres of land. Mark's land looks across the river to 'Blackfellas' Point', once an Aboriginal camping ground and meeting place. Looking for Blackfellas' Point is a history that begins by looking across the river to the arc of bush that is 'Blackfellas' Point. From there, Mark McKenna's gaze pans out - from the history of one place he knows intimately, to the history of one region and, ultimately, to the history of Australia's quest for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Looking For Blackfellas' Point is a history for every Australian who is interested in the story of settler-Australia's relations with Indigenous people - what happened between us, how we learnt to forget and, finally, how we came to confront the truth about our past and build a movement for reconciliation.

Mark McKenna is an Australian Research Council Fellow currently based in the History Department at the Australian National University in Canberra. His first book, The Captive Republic: A History of Republicanism in Australia 1788-1996 (CUP, 1996), was co-winner of the Australian Historical Studies Association's WK Hancock Prize in 1998. He is a frequent contributor to public debate in the press and on radio, and has written widely on Australian history. His interests range across the politics of history in Australia, to the republic and constitutional reform, Australian federation and now, with Looking For Blackfellas' Point, indigenous history, regional history, and the politics of reconciliation.