Author Description

Beautifully presented is an eclectic mix of Aboriginal art, photographs and objects about meetings with strangers from different cultures, events that were from the start fraught with tension. Included in the first-hand accounts of these extraordinary times are five biographies of Aboriginals in a chapter entitled 'When We First Met White People' Other essays tell the story from the European perspective. The illustrations - many not reproduced before - depict times lost, new beginnings and change; of indigenous peoples and their way of life, they are both sad and happy. For us now, seeing these earliest visual records, there is a shock of recognition in being able to witness the moments of these encounters - the authentic situations unsullied by the intermingling of cultures that came later. Equally compelling are paintings by Aboriginal artists.