Shino Konishi

Brokers and boundaries: colonial exploration in indigenous territory

Overview Colonial exploration continues, all too often, to be rendered as heroic narratives of solitary, intrepid explorers and adventurers. This edited collection contributes to scholarship that is challenging that persistent mythology. With a focus on Indigenous brokers, such as guides, assistants and mediators, it highlights the ways in which nineteenth-century exploration in Australia and New Guinea was a collective and socially complex enterprise. Many of the authors provide biographically rich studies that carefully examine and speculate about Indigenous brokers’ motivations, commitments and desires. All of the chapters in the collection are attentive to the specific local circumstances as well as broader colonial contexts in which exploration and encounters occurred.

Making Connections and Attachments: Writing the Lives of Two Nineteenth-Century Aboriginal Men

Abstract:This article traces the history of biographies about Indigenous Australian people, and suggests key differences in approach between Indigenous and non-Indigenous biographers. Through a study of two Aboriginal men—Gogy and Bungin—this article suggests that by emulating Indigenous approaches and explicitly acknowledging our connection and attachment to the subject, we can better discern the lives of historical Indigenous figures as individuals.

The four fathers of Australia: Baz Luhrmann's depiction of Aboriginal history and paternity in the Northern Territory

Baz Luhrmann’s epic film Australia was widely criticised for its depiction of the past when it was released in late 2008. This article suggests that such criticisms myopically centred on historical details, exaggerating the film’s purportedly inauthentic representation of the past. By analysing its portrayal of the four father figures in the film I will examine how Australia engages with the histories of inter-racial sexual relations and the governmental aims of segregation and assimilation during the interwar period. This article has been peer-reviewed.