'In a 1991 editorial for Australian Aboriginal Studies to inaugurate his term as Principal of AIATSIS, Bill Jonas wrote that the Institute had a tradition of scholars pursuing multidisciplinary research that was based on excellence and sensitivity towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. He stressed that no one wants excellence more than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and added that research had to be done properly for such a tradition to continue.' (Editorial introduction)
Contents indexed selectively.
This paper contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on the significance of emotions in the history of cross-cultural encounters... it examines how emotions governed European engagements with Aboriginal cultural landscapes and shaped Europeans' imaginings of how places could be constituted as sacred. It looks specifically at the writings of Francois Peron, one of the scientific crew of the Baudin expedition, a French Revolutionary voyage that visited Australia and Timor between 1801 and 1803. During the exploration of Australia the French expedition discovered two Aboriginal places that were interpreted as religiously significant to the local people: a grove discovered at Geographe Bay in the south-west of Australia and two tombs found at Maria Island off the south-east of Tasmania. Peron's extended discussion of these Aboriginal sites highlights the significance of emotions in the construction of ethnographic accounts, as well as the role of emotions in transcultural perceptions of place.' (Publication abstract)
'This paper reports on a project at AIATSIS to revive the Ngunawal language of the Canberra and nearby New South Wales region. This project is grounded in a close collaboration with a group of representatives from the Ngunawal community, who drive all aspects of the project. While still in its early days, the project has produced valuable outcomes both in terms of the language work carried out and the collaborative research process that has underpinned these outcomes.' (Publication abstract)
'This book arises broadly from the research project ‘Exploring the legacy of the 1948 American Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land’, for which editor Harris was a research associate, and, more specifically, from a 2011 research forum at which the chapters were presented as papers. ‘Circulating’ (in the book title) is not intended literally as being cyclic but rather crossing borders, either among Aboriginal groups, or out of Aboriginal society by means of recordings, or back into Aboriginal society through processes of repatriation, or from a contemporary Western rock genre into one Aboriginal society in a juxtaposition of historical and contemporary experiences and levels of understandings. Similarly, ‘legacy’ (in the project title) is interpreted liberally.' (Introduction)
'The new edition of Melbourne Dreaming is a complete revision, update and expansion of the 1997 The Melbourne Dreaming: a guide to the Aboriginal places of Melbourne. Eidelson brings to this second edition 24 years of experience as owner of Melbourne Walks and the benefit of his active participation in local Aboriginal initiatives and in raising awareness of Aboriginal presence and history among the general public. The result is a well-researched volume that both satisfies local protocols and provides a means of access to Aboriginal perspectives on the sites and histories of Melbourne and immediate surrounds.' (Introduction)
