Cirrus@Austlit

'First Nations biographical writing has come a long way since 1968, the year W. E. H. Stanner proposed that the ‘life and times’ of figures such as ‘David Unaipon, Albert Namatjira, Robert Tudawali, Durmugam, Douglas Nicholls, Dexter Daniels and many others’ should be added to the annals of Australian history to illustrate ‘the other side of a story over which the great Australian silence reigns’.1 New biographies by Bain Attwood and Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements have deservedly drawn acclaim as outstanding additions to Australian historiography, while also illustrating the potential of biographical writing to illuminate important episodes in Australian history. First Nations biographical writing has flourished over the years since Stanner’s lectures, although perhaps not as he might have anticipated.' (Introduction)

'Whitefella Way is photographer and historian Jon Rhodes’s follow up to his much acclaimed Cage of Ghosts, published in 2018. Both are produced by Darkwood in large format replete with illustrations that include historical and contemporary maps, artworks, historical photographs and images taken by Rhodes himself over many years of pondering, while travelling, portraying the relationship between black and white ways of making sacred monuments and significant sites. In particular, both books explore Aboriginal carved trees, bora grounds and grave sites, and their destruction and preservation by the Europeans who dispossessed their makers. Both books weave personal encounters and primary source research sensitively. Both are beautiful works by way of content and design' (Introduction)