lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Aboriginal Australia

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90183 Bates, Daisy (Barbara Ker Wilson, ed.; Harold Thomas, illus.) Tales Told to Kabbarli Aboriginal Legends Collected by Daisy Bates Angus & Robertson, Sydney NSW, 1977. Reprint: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 101pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; previous owner's name in ink; spotting to text block edges with light toning; two very faint tape marks on endpapers. Dustwrapper with tiny tears and chipping to the spine panel extremities; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $18

33547 Blake, Barry J Australian Aboriginal Languages A General Introduction Angus & Robertson, Sydney NSW, 1981. Hardcover, octavo, 137pp. Text block edges mildly toned; slight scraping at board corners. Otherwise very good to near fine in like dustwrapper. Click here to order $25

202099 Charlesworth, Max, et al. (eds.) Religion in Aboriginal Australia An anthology University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia Qld., 1989. Octavo; paperback; 458pp., with maps and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; text block, page edges and inside covers, well toned. Very good. Click here to order $20

216096 Dutton, Geoffrey White on Black: The Australian Aborigine Portrayed in Art Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1974. Large quarto hardcover; black cloth boards with white upper board and spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 168pp., colour and b&w illustrations. A few small scratches and light wear to lower boards; offsetting to endpapers; toned and spotted text block edges; errata notification pasted to half-title page cause some rippling to page verso. Illustrated dustwrapper worn and chipped at edges with a few tiny tears and scrapes especially at spine panel extremities; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. White on Black is an art book that is also a social history. How the white Europeans saw the black Australians, roughly from 1770 to 1970, and set it down in pencil or ink or paints, is the fascinating measure of their understanding of Australia's Aborigines. Or lack of it - Geoffrey Dutton has included several horrific failures to recognize a common humanity. Savages, noble or debased; 'Indians'; 'A dying race'; Whitefellow's friend; Jacky and Witchetty; beings with 'a peculiar dignity and grace'. They are all here, to the credit or the shame not only of the artists but of all white Australians and Australian visitors. Included are paintings and drawings by artists who accompanied the early French expeditions; the sympathetic drawings of a convict artist like Charles Rodius; the dramatic but accurate oils of Thomas Baines. Many modern Australian artists are also represented - Drysdale, Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley to name a few. Click here to order $60

94972 Ganter, Regina Mixed Relations - signed by the author Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia University of Western Australia Press, Crawley WA, 2006. Landscape quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 280pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; shaken; signed in ink by the author on the flyleaf; some faint spotting to the text block top edge. Dustwrapper is rubbed and lightly edgeworn; tears to the front flap-turn with associated creasing; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Australian histories too often imply that the nation's history began in Botany Bay in 1788. But Australia was not an isolated continent, and long before white settlement, Macassan trepangers had made contact with Aboriginal people along the Northern Coastline, weaving trading networks that extended from China to the Kimberley and Torres Strait. It was this Asian-Aboriginal link that gave rise to the northern pearling industry, a subsequent driver of regional economic development. Mixed Relations explores successive waves of contact in northern Australia and the impact of circumstances - political, legal and economic - on members of the polyethnic communities. Based on extensive fieldwork, including hundreds of interviews, it provides a fresh insight into the national narrative and poses challenging questions about the Australian identity in the twenty-first century. Click here to order $60

90086 Hale, Monty (Minyjun) Kurlumarniny We come from the desert Aboriginal Studies Press/AIATSIS, Canberra ACT, 2012. Quarto; paperback; 230pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear. Very good. "Monty Hale's (Minyjun) autobiography is a vibrant account of a fascinating period of Western Australian history. Monty recounts the story of his parents and other Nyangumarta people walking hundreds of kilometres from the Western Desert to the coast in the nineteen thirties, and meeting white people for the first time. He also paints a rich account of Aboriginal people's experience of station life in the forties and fifties, including 'their right to a fair wage', the Pilbara strike, and mining for tin to buy land. It is a history of co-existence told through poignant personal stories. This book is a rich contribution to historical accounts of Western Australia's social, cultural and economic history. Kurlumarniny is written in both English and Nyangumarta so is an important contribution to acknowledging and maintaining Aboriginal languages." - Dr Kathryn Trees Click here to order $30

89064 Herbert, Xavier Capricornia Angus & Robertson, Sydney NSW, 1939. Third Australian edition: octavo; hardcover, with endpaper maps; 549pp. Moderate wear; a few marks to red boards with mild wear to edges and corners; foxing to endpapers, prelims, half-title and title pages with occasional scattered spotting throughout; browning and spotting to text block edges. Lacks dustwrapper. Good to very good otherwise. Effectively, the prelude to the author's magnum opus, 'Poor Fellow My Country'. Click here to order $25

33508 Horton, David (ed.) The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia - Two Volumes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture: Volume 1 - A-L; Volume 2 - M-Z Aboriginal Studies Press/Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra ACT, 1994. Two volumes: quarto; hardcover, full cloth faux half-binding with gilt spine titles on a royal blue label and endpaper maps; 1,340pp. [633pp. + 707pp.], with maps and many monochrome and full-colour illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrappers lightly edgeworn. Mild rubbed illustrated slipcase with one corner bumped. The first significant authoritative and comprehensive reference on all aspects of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture. A prime intent of the compilation of the work was to produce 'not only an encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, but an encyclopaedia for Aboriginal Australia.' Click here to order $150

79324 Isobel Nanbaree Natural History Museum, London, 1995. Square quarto; paperback; 168pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor scuffing and edgewear; previous owner's ink inscription to the first page; some minor spotting to the text block edges. Very good. Children's book, told in blank verse, about a six year old Aboriginal boy who was adopted by Surgeon White of the First Fleet and who acted as an interpreter for Governor Philip. Click here to order $25

10968 Johnson, Dianne Sacred Waters The Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners Halstead Press, Broadway, NSW, Australia, 2007. Quarto; hardcover; 237pp., with many monochrome and colour illustrations. Dustwrapper. Fine. This is the story of the Gundungurra and Darug people of the Burragorang Valley and lower Hawkesbury, commemorating their survival in a changing world and their ongoing struggle to protect their sacred lands and waters. The Blue Mountains were occupied as a summer camp by the tribespeople before white settlement. After colonization, an exodus began from the valleys and their homelands with many people being pushed into makeshift camps as land development started to encroach on the traditional ranges. Eventually, most families moved to the Gully, in Katoomba, when the Burragorang was flooded in the 1950s to create the Waragamba Dam. This, along with the impact of a new racetrack in 1957 impeded access to the tribal lands. The emotions and impact of history are conveyed through the voices of those who lived through the loss of their traditional lands, and through their descendants, in this moving collaborative effort. Click here to order $75

90226 Lowe, Pat & Jimmy Pike Jilji: Life in the Great Sandy Desert - signed by Pat Lowe Magabala Books, Broome WA, 1990. Quarto; hardcover, with white upper board titling and decorated endpapers; 147pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear; institution stamp on half-title page and presentation date handwritten on the title page; mild wear to board edges and corners. One or two tiny scrapes on the dustwrapper edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. This book describes some of the features of life in the desert as told or shown by people who once lived here. Where there has been no real change, the present tense is used; for accuracy, however, when life is described as it was lived by nomadic bands before they settled, the past is used. The desert language in the text is Walmajarri. Click here to order $50

216011 Mabo, Koiki & Nowl Loos Edward Koiki Mabo: His Life and Struggle for Land Rights University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1996. Octavo paperback; 206pp., b&w plates. Moderate wear; well-browned text block and page edges with some rippling to upper side edges of pages; well rubbed covers with wear and scraping to edges and creased corners. Good to very good. Click here to order $13

71128 Morwood, M J Visions from the Past The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Art Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC, USA, 2002. Quarto; hardcover; 347pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. This book provides a comprehensive examination of Aboriginal rock art. It also asks how and why archaeologists study prehistoric art. M.J. Morwood reviews the techniques, methodologies, and technologies that scientists employ and explains why their insights often cannot be gained through other types of archaeological evidence. The symbolic evidence found in rock art is virtually the only window into understanding the ideology, territoriality, resource use, and social organization of an ancient society. Click here to order $25

33153 Mountford, Charles P. Nomads of the Australian Desert Rigby, Adelaide SA, 1976. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 628pp., with many monochrome illustrations and 13pp. of full-colour colour plates, one folding. Very slightly rolled; some very light toning to the text block edges; previous owner's ink inscription to the flyleaf; some mild offset to the endpaper edges. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed and sunned along the spine panel, with some very light wear to the top edge; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Laid in: a slip of printed paper warning against exposing the book to indigenous Australian perusal without first consulting tribal elders. Image of the cover available upon request only. Ex-libris: Michael Boddy. This book concerns the Aborigines of the Mann and Musgrave ranges who lived in one of the world's most arid and desolate regions - the study of a people isolated from every outside influence. Dr Mountford shows how the landforms of the tribal areas are interwoven in their spiritual lives and how they inspired a cherished body of myths, legends rituals and ceremonies. These observations are augmented by a collection of drawings and photographs principally taken during his own field researches and is closely integrated with the text. Click here to order $750

216005 Simon, Ella Through My Eyes Collins Dove, Blackburn, 1987. Octavo paperback; 190pp., b&w photographic plates. Owner's name. Browned text block and page edges; rubbed covers with wear to edges and corners. Very good. Through My Eyes was among the first Aboriginal women's narratives available to a mainstream audience. Ella Simon, a prominent Biripi woman from Taree on the mid north coast of NSW, made oral recordings of her life story in 1973. She was determined that her resultant autobiography would prove to Aboriginal and white readers alike that 'white and black can live together; that they've got a lot in common'. Ella Simon believed that publishing her life story would provide a forum for her complex and then controversial views on assimilation. She resolved to articulate her sense of Aboriginality and defend her positive interpretation of assimilation in response to unsettling events in the Purfleet Aboriginal community: events that reflected wider reform and change in Aboriginal affairs. Click here to order $25

209565 Sykes, Bobbi Eclipse University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1996. First edition. Octavo paperback; 38pp. Minor wear only; near fine. Click here to order $20

209564 Sykes, Bobbi Love Poems and Other Revolutionary Actions University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989. Reprint: octavo paperback; 57pp. Minor wear only; near fine. Click here to order $20

90075 Sykes, Roberta Snake Dreaming Trilogy - signed by the author "Snake Cradle", "Snake Dancing", & "Snake Circle" Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., St. Leonards NSW, 1997-2000. Three volumes: octavo; paperback; 1255pp. [330pp. + 270pp.+ 325pp.], with monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; scuffing to the covers; text block edges spotted; signed in ink on the first two title pages; previous owner's ink inscription to the first page of volumes 1 and 2. Very good. "The flamboyant Aboriginal rights activist, academic and writer, whose searing autobiography laid bare racism in Australia and provoked debate over what it meant to be an Aborigine, died on Sunday. She was 67. Dr Sykes spent much of her adult years in the glare of publicity. From being arrested in 1972 at the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, to being the first black Australian to graduate from a US university - namely, the ivied halls of Harvard - and the unresolved controversy over her entitlement to call herself Aborigine, she both polarised and compelled." - Jamie Walker & Andrew Fraser Click here to order $50

86220 Thomas, Martin The Many Worlds of R.H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist Allen & Unwin, Crow's Nest NSW, 2011. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling and illustrated endpapers; 462pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece, many maps and monochrome illustrations and 8pp. of colour plates. Minor wear; some light bumping to the board bottom edges. Dustwrapper slightly rubbed; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. "Martin Thomas has brought back anthropologist Robert Hamilton Mathews from almost total obscurity. Thomas has pursued his man with forensic intensity, and astutely located him in time and place. This alone is a significant achievement. But in so doing he examines many wider themes that inhere in the story. He employs the story of Mathews' public career to examine the world of Australian - and indeed English-speaking anthropology in its formative years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thomas considers the place of Indigenous people in Australian society at the time and reflects on the wider colonial encounter. Mathews was the son of Irish emigrants who had fled Ireland under suspicion of murder before pursuing and gaining respectability in the colonies. He had a successful career as a licensed surveyor, became wealthy and attained mild eminence as a justice of the peace - nothing to render him either memorable or historically important. But in 1892, at the age of 51, something extraordinary happened to him: Thomas describes the life-changing experience as a sudden onset of 'ethnomania'. Mathews became obsessed by the need to find out and record everything he could about the remaining Indigenous communities in south-east Australia. The mystery of his sudden ethnomania derives as much from the timing as the task. As a surveyor, he had travelled incessantly across New South Wales and had obviously met many Indigenous people while on his professional excursions, but there is no evidence that he made any attempt to collect information or artefacts before 1892. Some general characteristics of the time allow Thomas to approach (but not penetrate) the mystery. There was a strong sense in white Australia that the Aborigines were dying out, particularly in south-east Australia. This was at the moment when European thought, deeply penetrated by Darwinian evolution, considered that those viewed as primitive held the secrets to the early history of the human race. These two facts help explain both the energy and urgency of the Mathews crusade and the interest that his work evoked in intellectual circles in many parts of the world. Between 1893 and 1912 he published 171 articles in learned journals in London, Washington, Vienna, Berlin and Paris, as well as the Australian states. It was an extraordinary achievement - a forgotten contribution to anthropology and to the cultural history of the continent. Fortunately he has now found a worthy and persuasive champion. We are left in no doubt that behind the book is a powerful and well-informed intellect. But the repeated intrusions of the author's persona make it seem as though he finds himself quite as interesting as Mathews, and assumes his readers will feel the same. Nonetheless Thomas is a fine advocate and writer, able to create not just a memorable montage of Mathews and his milieu but an unforgettable one." - Henry Reynolds Click here to order $40

63099 Traditional (Catherine H. Berndt, trans. & ed.; Djoki Yunupingu, illus.) Land of the Rainbow Snake Aboriginal Children's Stories and Songs from Western Arnhem Land Australian Children's Classics/John Ferguson Pty. Ltd., Sydney NSW, 1981. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, full leather with gilt spine titles on brown labels and tipped-on upper board decoration; 117pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; boards a little rubbed; text block top edge dusted. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Click here to order $17

78588 Wongar, B. The Trackers Outback Press, Collingwood, 1975. First edition. Hardcover, octavo, 135pp. Minor wear; rear panel of dustwrapper rubbed and small bump on lower front board and dustwrapper. Very good to near fine and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. An Asian architect dreams of building a bridge linking the two continents of Australia and Asia. But his hopes of creating racial harmony are suddenly shattered. One morning he discovers his skin has turned black; overnight, he is forced to become a fugitive. During his flight to freedom the Asian discovers the Aboriginal people. He is accepted as a brother, and quickly embraces aboriginal culture, lifestyles and legends. His experiences become our window into the lives of the indigenous population who inhabit the vast, tyrannical Australian outback. A compelling story, magically written. Click here to order $22

52615 Yunupingu, Geoffrey Gurrumul Gurrumul: CD Sony/ATV. New. Click here to order $31

64299 Yunupingu, Geoffrey Gurrumul Rrakala: CD Sony/ATV. New. Click here to order $31