The Australian Wars (ed by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray & Henry Reynolds, A&U)

The Australian Wars is a collection of essays edited by Rachel Perkins, Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds that outlines the horrific frontier wars between 1788 and 1930. The book is an extension of the titular 2022 SBS documentary, hosted by Perkins, which examines 100+ years of violent and brutal conflict between First Nations people and colonists. As Perkins says in the book’s introduction, ‘Today every reputable military historian agrees that what happened here meets the definition of war.’ What follows will leave the reader equally convinced. Organised into three main sections, The Australian Wars is an extensive and thoroughly researched account of the conflict. It traces the beginnings of invasion around Botany Bay, before expanding through Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia’s south-west and the Kimberley, the Northern Territory and the Torres Strait Islands. Organised raids, advanced guerilla tactics and the use of spies and other agents were the tools of the resistance; brutal massacres mixed with ‘humanitarian’ efforts marked the colonial advance. Each chapter opens with a reflection by a First Nations author, including Greg Lehman, Kim Scott, Jared Thomas and Leah Lui-Chivizhe, whose contributions underline the cost of the lives lost and the cultures intentionally dismantled while highlighting the need for more formal recognition of this brutal and long-running conflict. Extremely accessible and highly informative, this wide-ranging, and at times unsettling, book firmly corrects long-running inaccuracies in mainstream views of our nation’s not-so-distant past.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anthony Morris is a freelance reviewer, novelist and podcaster. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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