Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Eurocentric perceptions of natural history led to the flora and fauna of the new colony of New South Wales being viewed as deficient and inferior. The swans of the colony were black and eagles white, birds built shell-strewn avenues of sticks to cavort in and parrots walked on the ground. The mammals carried their young in a pouch and there were furred animals that laid eggs. This 'miscellany of the curious' fuelled the rage for Australian natural history amongst the upper classes of Europe, bringing income and, occasionally, fame to its collectors and documenters. On the ground, in the colony, it contributed to great change for the animals and, in some cases, extinction. In Upside Down World author Penny Olsen documents how our scientific knowledge evolved, using collectors' and naturalists' journals to enhance her stories.

Australians are often told that they should know more about Asia. They are urged to learn Asian languages, study Asian cultures, and adapt to Asian business practices. Yet it is often those doing the admonishing who know the least, and those they exhort to 'come to terms' with Asian countries who know the most. Much interaction takes place between Australians and Asians at an individual, not national, level. Throughout Australian history, more Australians have been attracted to Asia thanis usually recognised. Some sought to understand Asian traditions, some looked for new lifestyles, while others found stimulating sources of modernity. Mant projected their impressions through the arts. but the major cultural histories ignored them, or overlooked the Asian element in their work. Until well after the Pacific War, many Australian perceptions of Asia were still coloured by prejudice and fear. The Yellow Lady, a landmark study, is the first Australian cultural history thatdoesn't neglect Asia. It surveys the work of novelists, sculptors, film makers, composers, architects, poets, potters, playwrights, photographers and choreographers, and is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand Australia and its place in the Asia-Pacific hemisphere. This completely revised and expanded edition of The Yellow Lady contains material focusing on Australian-Asian hybridity in Literature, theatre and the visual arts. It carries the Australian experience of Asia forwardthrough the 1990s and considers the 'Asianisation' of urban Australian culture. Far from their isolationism of earlier decades, Australians at the end of the century are creating a hybrid culture that had no counterpart anywhere else.

Skin Deep looks at the preoccupations of European-Australians in their encounters with Aboriginal women and the tropes, types, and perceptions that seeped into everyday settler-colonial thinking. Early erroneous and uninformed accounts of Aboriginal women and culture were repeated throughout various print forms and imagery, both in Australia and in Europe, with names, dates, and locations erased so that individual women came to be anonymized as 'gins' and 'lubras.' The book identifies and traces the various tropes used to typecast Aboriginal women, contributing to their lasting hold on the colonial imagination even after conflicting records emerged. The colonial archive itself, consisting largely of accounts by white men, is critiqued in the book. Construction of Aboriginal women's gender and sexuality was a form of colonial control, and Skin Deep shows how the industrialization of print was critical to this control, emerging as it did alongside colonial expansion. For nearly all settlers, typecasting Aboriginal women through name-calling and repetition of tropes sufficed to evoke an understanding that was surface-based and half-knowing: only skin deep. *** "Impressively researched, written, organized and presented...highly recommended for community and academic library Aboriginal Studies, Women's Studies, Australian Studies, and Colonial History reference collections." --Midwest Book Review, MBR Bookwatch: October 2016, Helen's Bookshelf [Subject: Cultural History, Aboriginal Studies, Women's Studies, Australian Studies, Colonial Studies]

Chap. 11; Aborigines - physical appearance, food & general life, weapons, hunting, superstitions.

Australia is home to an incredible diversity of native animals. While Australian animals are among the most unique in the world, they are also among the most endangered, with hundreds currently on the brink of extinction. We must act quickly if we are to save these species, as once gone, they are gone forever. Extinct is a collection of artworks from established and emerging Australian fine artists, each depicting an Australian animal that has already, for various reasons, tumbled over the edge into extinction. Extinct laments their loss, but also celebrates their former existence, diversity and significance. The stunning artworks are accompanied by stories of each animal, highlighting the importance of what we have lost, so that we appreciate what we have not lost yet. Extinct features artworks from Sue Anderson, Brook Garru Andrew, Andrew Baines, Elizabeth Banfield, Sally Bourke, Jacob Boylan, Nadine Christensen, Simon Collins, Lottie Consalvo, Henry Curchod, Sarah Faulkner, Dianne Fogwell, David Frazer, Martin George, Bruce Goold, Eliza Gosse, Simone Griffin, Johanna Hildebrandt, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nick Howson, Brendan Huntley, Ben Jones, Alex Latham, Rosemary Lee, Amanda Marburg, Chris Mason, Terry Matassoni, Rick Matear, Eden Menta, Reg Mombassa, Tom O'Hern, Bernard Ollis, Emma Phillips, Nick Pont, Geoffrey Ricardo, Sally Robinson, Anthony Romagnano, Gwen Scott, Marina Strocchi, Jenny Watson and Allie Webb.