Lonely Planet Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands

Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands: Guide to Indigenous Australia (Lonely Planet)

Average customer rating:

A good introduction, with a lot of heart
Dissapointing and negative. Not worthy of Lonely Planet.
EXCELLENT!!!

Aboriginal Australia & the Torres Strait Islands: Guide to Indigenous Australia (Lonely Planet)
Sarina Singh
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1864501146

Book Description

There are many common stereotypes of Aboriginal peoples. One is that we are all the same and conform to the idealized image of the naked Aborigine standing with spear in hand watching the sun set. This is a picture which quickly dissolved into the reality of the 21st century. We are as different as the landscapes of coast, desert, rainforest and snowy mountains. The land is different and so are we, the first peoples of the land.
- Dr. Irene Watson, Aboriginal lawyer, writer and activist

What is the significance of dots in contemporary Aboriginal painting? How many languages were spoken in Australia before colonisation? What did the Mabo and Wik decisions mean?

With contributors from more than 50 Indigenous Australians, including Yothu Yindi lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu, internationally acclaimed writer Herb Wharton and former social justice commissioner Mick Dodson, this guidebook gives you an overview of the main issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people today.

Use this practical companion guide to find organised tours, festivals, indoor and outdoor art galleries, films, literature, Internet sites and other points where Indigenous people share their culture. Also included are tips and protocols for interacting respectfully with Indigenous people, recommended retailers working with Aboriginal communities and detailed information on the permits required to enter Aboriginal land. In addition to full-colour sections on Indigenous art, bush food and sport, this guide includes more than 40 detailed maps and a fold-out language group map.

This is a great companion to Lonely Planet's other destination guides and maps to Australia.

Customer Reviews:

A good introduction, with a lot of heart.......2006-04-11

I'm heading to Australia to work on Aboriginal civil rights issues, and picked up this book a few months ago as an intro. While it is certainly no legal treatise, it is a great introduction to an interesting and diverse group of people and their history and struggles to survive European colonization. The reviewer below seems to object to the obvious emotion with which much of the book is written. You should know that, while it is in large part the work of Lonely Planet writers and researchers, they also went straight to the source and have many, many shorter pieces written by Aboriginal people whom they asked to contribute. If you are looking for a dry, detached work of anthropological research, this is not it. If you want an exposure to a variety of topics in the voices of the people about whom they are written, this is a great resource. It is an admirable achievement from Lonely Planet, and a moving testimonial to the world's oldest continuous culture.

Dissapointing and negative. Not worthy of Lonely Planet........2005-02-11

This book is full of bitterness and resentment, it is full of repeating terms such as "and there are still some in goverment who still refuse to utter the word 'sorry'".
The authors (and there are alot of them) should realise what a readers motivation is in picking up this book. Is it to be given a politically weighted, bitter (and actually quite shallow) account of indigenous culture? Or is it to gain a wider appreciation of a subject which in massive and very interesting in a positive way? An example of this books shallowness is p67 and the (brief) section given to aboriginal art, amongst a lot of resentment it mentions that Papunya was the birth of the aboriginal art movement as we know it today and that the some of the Elders of the community where encouraged to paint, no mention of Geoff Bardon who was the driving force behind the movement and who risked great personal hardship to do so.

Dissapointing and negative.

EXCELLENT!!!.......2002-12-05

I have been researching the discrimination faced by the Aboriginal people for several years. Until I found this book, I'd never seen any book that I thought accurately portrayed the situation. The book is excellent. It contains general information about important issues and has very detailed sections for each state/territory. It is a necessity for anyone interested in the Aboriginal history and culture!

Lonely Planet Australian Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Language Survival Kit)

Average customer rating:

Lonely Planet Australian Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Language Survival Kit)
Denise Angelo , Carolyn Coleman , and Melanie Wilkinson
Manufacturer: Lonely Planet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0864422563

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