Discussions on the history and historiography of Australia's New England

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Round the history blogs 3 - collectors, convicts, carnivals

Another of my regular reports on the history sites I follow.

Janine Rizzetti had two interesting posts relevant to New England history.

The first is a review, 'Aborigines and Colonists’ of R H W Reece's 1974 book, Aborigines and Colonists: Aborigines and Colonial Society in New South Wales in the 1830s and 1840s. There Janine makes some comments on Aboriginal historiography. I dealt with this a little so far as New England is concerned in one part of  Unrecognised and now almost unknown: explorations through the history of the broader New England[1.]

Research and writing on Aboriginal prehistory and history began quite early at the University of New England. One thing that I should do but haven't is the preparation of a simple chronological list of theses and publications on the Aborigines linked in some way to New England. My feeling is that this would draw out the pattern in the rise and to some degree fall in interest in this area. It would also better delineate the New England contribution.

Janine's second post, Hunters and Collectors’ by Tom Griffiths, deals with one thread in Australian thought, the tensions between two groups of people in relation to history: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, and amateurs and professionals. Similar issues arise in New England. Janine also makes an interesting observation on the past prevalence of history and nature themes in primary school.

Australian Policy and History Web Site, a post on my personal blog, discusses the creation of a new history we site part sponsored by the Heritage Futures Research Centre at the University of New England. I am an adjunct of the HFRC, and wish the new site well.

Culture Matters is an anthropology rather than history blog. However, not only do the two disciplines share some common methodological problems, but anthropology and the writing of anthropologists is an important source of information for historians. 

Greg Downey's Academic professionalization workshop for grad students and more is not about anthropology as such, but provides useful hints for those applying for academic jobs.

On Archives Outside, Christine Shergold's Staff Picks [1870 Convict records disposal schedule] deals with the disposal of early convict records. I found it interesting, because this is an area I know very little about. I have never had to dig into the early convict records. Because of the nature of my interests, I generally rely on secondary sources.

The 88th History Carnival has a musical focus, but is also a reminder of the range of historical interests, as well as some of the quality of historical blogging. You can also listen to the music.

More next week.

No comments: