Early Images of the Australian Aborigines
14 October - 29 November 1993
Included in this exhibition are images drawn from the early discovery
and exploration accounts. We see the aborigines through the eyes of
Sydney Parkinson, the artist on Cook's first voyage, and even the poet
and engraver William Blake, who worked on the plates for Governor
Hunter's account of the early settlement at Sydney.
All visitors to Australia mentioned the aborigines. Some studied them
quite closely and to them we owe the information about their customs and
languages which would otherwise have been lost. Among this material is a
unique item, an exercise book containing a series of manuscript
responses to a questionnaire circulated among the South Australian
aborigines in 1892, giving extensive details of the customs and
languages of the local tribes. The Monash Rare Book Collection holds an
extensive range of early materials essential for the study of the
Australian aborigines, and the responses of the early settlers with whom
they came in contact.
You may also read the text of the catalogue
online. |
