Deep History

What is deep history? How do histories make sovereignty on Country? What is history's future?

For Aboriginal people, the past is the present. Competing histories form and transform the lands, peoples and nations of Oceania, from the Pacific Islands, New Guinea and Aotearoa/New Zealand to Australia. In nations impacted by colonialism, such questions are particularly pertinent. Living on their Country far longer than the colonial invaders, First Nations peoples have long made history.

In Deep History: Country and Sovereignty, edited by Jackie Huggins and Ann McGrath, leading historians and thinkers explore the histories of caring for places and people over millennia. With contributions from Brenda Croft, Anna Clark, Lynette Russell and many more, Deep History considers how stories of the past and the future that are inscribed on land, waterways and skies, and together share historical practices from across globe, including walking on Country, gardening and agriculture and rock art.

Indigenous histories play an important role in asserting sovereign rights in now-colonised spaces. Colonial powers crafted historical narratives of entitlement, yet First Nations people continue to perform deep histories of sovereignty. Deep History offers readers an invitation to walk the Country, to see how it reveals the most crucial of all histories for the planet.