Bob Reece Bob Reece i(A7916 works by) (a.k.a. Robert Harold William Reece)
Born: Established: 1940 ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 4 y separately published work icon The Invincibles : New Norcia's Aboriginal Cricketeers 1879-1906 Bob Reece , Fremantle : WA Histrionics , 2014 8470756 2014 single work biography

'The story of New Norcias Aboriginal cricket team 1879-1906. How was it that New Norcia,this tiny and isolated outpost of Catholic Europe set in the heart of the Western Australian bush , could have given rise to such an extraordinary sporting phenomenon?' (Source: New Norcia Benedictine Community website)

1 [Review Essay] : Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines Bob Reece , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 2 2013; (p. 113-114)

— Review of Historical Dictionary of Australian Aborigines Mitchell Rolls , Murray Johnson , 2011 reference

'This compilation, useful as it is, would have been of more value if the authors had given more thought to the scope of their coverage. As it is, the book attempts to embrace traditional Aboriginal anthropology and material culture, as well as the history of black–white interaction from 1606 to the present social and political scene. In other words, it is a miniature Aboriginal encyclopaedia. Perhaps, however, this was due to the requirements of the US-based publisher’s series, Historical dictionaries of peoples and cultures, of which it is part.' (Introduction)

1 [Review Essay] : Forgetting Aborigines Bob Reece , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 2009; (p. 108-111)

— Review of Forgetting Aborigines Chris Healy , 2008 single work criticism

'We have to thank Chris Healy for reminding us so dramatically of the considerable gap between evidence-based historians and cultural historians. While the former are likely to find his new book provoking (in the sense of irritating or frustrating), the latter will probably greet it as a provocative triumph.'  (Introduction)

1 Reply to Geoffrey Gray's Review of B Reece 2007, Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , 2009 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 2009; (p. 97-98)

'Geoffrey Gray’s (2008:114–15) remarks on Daisy Bates’ scientific achievements call for a biographer’s response — on her behalf and on behalf of the late Isobel White. My assertion that Bates ‘pioneered anthropological fieldwork’ (Reece 2007:9) was based on White’s chapter in Marcus’ collected essays on women anthropologists (White 1993:58–61). White’s editing of Bates’ manuscript, ‘The Native Tribes of Western Australia’, had given her an intimate knowledge of her modus operandi: a self-taught researcher who picked the brains of the experts to inform her ethnographic work. In her introduction to the edited version, White remarked that ‘while C Strehlow, Howitt, R H Mathews, John Mathew, Spencer and Gillen describe marriage rules, ceremonies, mythology and beliefs, Mrs Bates writes of everyday behaviour…she gives us a much more vivid picture of Aboriginal life than previous workers’ (Bates 1985:20–1). White did not claim, however, that Bates’ work ‘became the template for modern anthropological fieldwork’ (Gray’s words), which he attributes to Spencer and Haddon. Gray has set up a straw woman by misrepresenting White’s evaluation.' (Introduction)

1 'Killing with Kindness' : Daisy Bates and New Norcia Bob Reece , 2008 single work biography
— Appears in: Aboriginal History , vol. 32 no. 2008; (p. 128-145)
1 [Review Essay] The Grand Experiment : Two Boys, Two Cultures. Bob Reece , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 2 2008; (p. 112-114)

— Review of The Grand Experiment : Two Boys, Two Cultures Anouk Ride , 2007 single work biography

‘The Grand Experiment’ was the Spanish Benedictine monk Rosendo Salvado’s decision to take two Aboriginal boys, eleven-year-old Joannes Maria Dirimera and seven-year-old Francis Xavier Conaci, from Western Australia to Rome in January 1849. His intention was for them to train for the priesthood so that they could evangelise their own people. As an early attempt to ‘Aboriginalise’ an arm of the Catholic Church in Australia, it might be regarded as being a bold and far-sighted idea at the time. In reality, it was a complete disaster. Both boys contracted undiagnosed but fatal diseases, Conaci dying in Rome in October 1853 and Dirimera a few months after his return to Western Australia in August 1855. Three more boys who were subsequently despatched to Europe also died, as did all the young Aboriginal girls sent to the Mercy Convent in Perth. Another boy from New Norcia, Upumera, had died in early 1848 on the voyage to Europe with Salvado’s Catalan colleague, José Serra.'  (Introduction)

1 The Irishness of Daisy Bates Bob Reece , 2008 single work biography
— Appears in: Quadrant , July-August vol. 52 no. 7-8 2008; (p. 38-45)
1 1 Lifting the Flap Bob Reece , 2008 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 301 2008; (p. 4)
1 AP Elkin Interviewed About Daisy Bates Bob Reece (interviewer), 2007 single work interview
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 2007; (p. 131-137)

'An interview with the late Australian academic anthropologist AP Elkin about Daisy Bates' anthropological work on the Aboriginal society is presented. According to Elkin, Bates felt that the governments of Western Australia and South Australia did not realized her value. He comments on Bates' belief in cannibalism amongst the Aborigines. He expresses his views on the great affection that Bates had for the Aborigines.' (Publication abstract)

1 10 y separately published work icon Daisy Bates : Grand Dame of the Desert Bob Reece , Canberra : National Library of Australia , 2007 Z1452155 2007 single work biography 'Daisy Bates became an iconic figure during the years she spent on the border between Western Australia and South Australia. 'The Great White Queen of the Never-Never Lands' reigned supreme over the groups of Aboriginal people who, attracted by the Transcontinental Railway, arrived from the desert country to the north. Bates craved to be seen as a 'woman of science' through her earlier ethnographic work in Western Australia, but her exaggerated claims of wholesale cannibalism amongst the Aborigines, her belief in their inevitable extinction and her dismissive attitude to 'castes' discredited her within the academic community. Only in recent times has the use of her ethnographic data in Native Title claims begun to rehabilitate her scientific reputation. In Daisy Bates: A Life, Western Australian historian Bob Reece tells her extraordinary story through her letters and published writings so that readers can gain some idea of her motivation and beliefs, and picture what kind of person she really was.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 'You Would Have Loved Her for Her Lore' : The Letters of Daisy Bates Bob Reece , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 2007; (p. 51-70)
'Daisy Bates was once an iconic figure in Australia but her popular and academic reputation became tarnished by her retrograde views. Her credibility was also put in doubt through the exposure of her fictionalised Irish background. In more recent times, however, her ethnographic data on the Aborigines of Western Australia has been an invaluable source for Native Title claims, while her views on Aboriginal extinction, cannibalism and 'castes' are being seen as typical of her time. This article briefly reviews what had been the orthodox academic opinion of her scientific achievement before summarising what is reliably known of her early history and indicating what kind of person is revealed in the 3000 or more letters that she left behind.' (Author's abstract).
1 How Fremantle's First Newspaper Was Hoaxed Bob Reece , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 285 2006; (p. 25-26)
1 y separately published work icon Australian Journal of Irish Studies Bob Reece (editor), 2001 Perth : Murdoch University. Centre for Irish Studies, Centre for Irish Studies , Z990304 2001 periodical (4 issues)

'The idea of The Australian Journal of Irish Studies suggested itself during the 11th Irish-Australian Conference at Murdoch University and University of Notre Dame Australia in April 2000. The organising committee felt that the number of papers generated by the biennial conference in Ireland and Australia and the wide public as well as academic interest in the subject area warranted a dedicated journal. By establishing the AJIS, we hope that it will become the principal vehicle for Irish Studies in Australia' (from the publisher's website: URL no longer active).

1 Green Among the Gold : Some Irish Ideas about Australia (in Memory of Vincent Buckley) Bob Reece , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 130 1993; (p. 39-45) Australia in the World : Perceptions and Possibilities 1994; (p. 138-147)
1 Frank the Poet Bob Reece , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Exiles from Erin : Convict Lives in Ireland and Australia 1991; (p. 151-183)
1 y separately published work icon Exiles from Erin : Convict Lives in Ireland and Australia Bob Reece (editor), Basingstoke : Macmillan , 1991 Z1554360 1991 anthology non-fiction
1 Francis MacNamara : Convict Poet Bob Reece , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Irish-Australian Connection 1988; (p. 43-80)
1 Diane Barwick Bob Reece , 1986 single work obituary (for Diane Elizabeth Barwick )
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 2 1986; (p. 70-72)

'The sudden and tragic death of anthropologist Diane McEachern Barwick on 4 April brought to an end a vigorous academic and public career devoted to securing justice for Australia's Indigenous peoples, the Australian Aborigines. Dr Barwick possessed that combination—so rare in Australia today—of absolutely scrupulous scholarship and passionate conviction, and her reputation and influence have reached far beyond her actual published work.' (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon Aborigines and Colonists : Aborigines and Colonial Society in New South Wales in the 1830s and 1840s Bob Reece , Sydney University Press , 1974 Z1575057 1974 single work non-fiction
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