Aboriginal use of fire as a weapon in Colonial Victoria : a preliminary analysis
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred) , Wilkie, Benjamin , Tout, Dan , Clark, Jidah
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Historical Studies Vol. 54, no. 1 (2023), p. 109-124
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The use of fire as an offensive and defensive weapon on the colonial frontier in Australia has received little scholarly attention. This article aims to build on insights from current historiography about the customary use of fire by Aboriginal peoples within the borders of Victoria, Australia. Specifically, our aim is to highlight the historically significant role Aboriginal peoples’ use of fire played in resisting the colonists in Victoria during the colonial period. By closely scrutinising documentary records it is possible to demonstrate that Aboriginal people used fire, both offensively and defensively, against the colonists. © Editorial Board, Australian Historical Studies 2023.
Volcanism in Aboriginal Australian oral traditions : ethnographic evidence from the newer volcanics province
- Authors: Wilkie, Benjamin , Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research Vol. 403, no. (2020), p. 1-11
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This article collects and presents nineteenth-century ethnographic evidence from the Newer Volcanics Province of Australia and explores how volcanism was recorded and understood in Aboriginal oral traditions. It investigates whether Aboriginal Australian oral traditions can be understood as persistent eyewitness accounts of volcanic eruptions in the Newer Volcanics Province, how andwhat kind of geological and volcanological knowledge was embedded within Aboriginal Australian oral traditions, and considers what value the ethnographic evidence has for understanding both the socio-cultural and geological histories of the Newer Volcanics Province.