Looking for Blackfellas' Point: An Australian History of PlaceBlackfellas' Point lies on the Towamba River in south-eastern New South Wales. As the river descends rapidly from its source on the Monaro plains, it winds its way through state forest, national park and farming land. Around twenty-five kilometres before it reaches the sea, just south of Eden, it passes through Towamba, the small village in which Mark McKenna now owns eight acres of land. Mark's land looks across the river to 'Blackfellas' Point', once an Aboriginal camping ground and meeting place. Looking for Blackfellas' Point is a history that begins by looking across the river to the arc of bush that is 'Blackfellas' Point. From there, Mark McKenna's gaze pans out - from the history of one place he knows intimately, to the history of one region and, ultimately, to the history of Australia's quest for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Looking For Blackfellas' Point is a history for every Australian who is interested in the story of settler-Australia's relations with Indigenous people - what happened between us, how we learnt to forget and, finally, how we came to confront the truth about our past and build a movement for reconciliation. |
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Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal children Aboriginal communities Aboriginal culture Aboriginal families Aboriginal land Aboriginal leaders Aboriginal peo Aboriginal rights April August Australian history Bega District Bega Gazette Bega River Bega Standard Bega Valley Bombala Boyd Boyd's Boydtown Brierly's bush camp Canberra Candelo cannery century civilisation claimed Cobargo colonial colonists Cooma corroboree Cruse December dispossession Dymphna Clark early Eden-Monaro European explain Flinders forest frontier Henry Reynolds historians Illawarra Mercury Imlay Magnet indigenous Journal June Kudingal late live Looking for Blackfellas Melbourne memory Mitchell Library Monaro Moruya Mumbulla Mountain native non-Aboriginal Australians NSW Government Oswald Brierly Pambula past Percy Mumbler pioneer political Press reconciliation region Robinson September settlement settler culture south coast South Wales south-eastern New South squatters story struggle Sydney Gazette Tarlinton Ted Thomas Toby Towamba Towamba River town tribes Twofold Bay Wallaga Lake Wesson whaling Woodchip Woodwell wrote