The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European invasion of Australia Book

Based on the reputation of this book, and the authors own warnings of an 'inescapably political' view I had expected a barnstorming denunciation and litany of crimes to be nailed into the chest of white Australia. Yet instead I found an engaging thematic history, that is surprisingly dispassionate in its judgement.

Indeed, it's far more evidence-based and nuanced than Reynolds' writing about Australian foreign policy. While the small section on trying to identify a specific death toll has drawn attention, most of the book seeks simply to relate the evidence from white pioneers and Aboriginal oral history to lay out how the interactions occurred. Most of the book is devoted to the nature of life for both sides, with as much about their peaceful and cooperative interactions rather than just the violence.

Indeed, it's partly refreshing in some ways. The modern debate as carried out in the newspapers at least seems so fixed on the central issue of massacres and specific body counts that we risk losing all sight of the context in which it occurred. As Reynolds' rightly notes, such a focus can often return Aborigines to a position as mere victims, when his aim in this book is to show how they lived, not just the ways in which they were killed by others. Recognising the 'other side of the frontier' as Reynolds admirably does means engaging the broad picture which is far more important and interesting.

This book requires some sense of the broader history of the invasion and frontiers of early Australia given its thematic organisation and tendency to jump rapidly around in time in order to pull out the snippets of evidence available. Reynolds may quote from a settler in 1790, then an aboriginal speaker from 1930, then a pioneer diarist in 1850 in quick succession.

It's easy to see why it was a classic on release, and though the scholarly and public conversation has somewhat accepted the broader theme and moved on, there is still a clear and important message in this book. To take the frontier conflict seriously and recognise and respect the role of Aborigines in shaping that frontier - and in turn, in shaping Australia - that deserves renewed focus.