This definitive account explores the treaties made between white settlers and Aboriginal people in Australia and the different ways in which the two groups interpreted those acts of possession. Questions such as "Why were these agreements forged?""How did the Aborigines understand the terms of the agreements?" and "On what basis did whites claim to be the rightful owners of the land?" are thoroughly discussed as well as the ways the settlers rewrote history to remove mention of the destruction and displacement of the Aborigines.

Drawing on oral and documentary sources, this study of the Aboriginal struggle for equal standing in Australian society focuses on rapidly changing perceptions of race and history. Prominent Aboriginal leaders are profiled as well as the key historical events that have come to motivate both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal campaigners. During a time of heated debate about minority rights in Australia, this book illuminates the dramatic history that has preceded current questions.

For five centuries protection has provided a basic currency for organising relations between polities. Protection underpinned sprawling tributary systems, permeated networks of long-distance trade, reinforced claims of royal authority in distant colonies and structured treaties. Empires made routine use of protection as they extended their influence, projecting authority over old and new subjects, forcing weaker parties to pay them for safe conduct and, sometimes, paying for it themselves. The result was a fluid politics that absorbed both the powerful and the weak while giving rise to...

Bain Attwood re-examines the historical treatment of indigenous peoples' sovereignty and property rights in Australia and New Zealand, demonstrating that it was primarily the outcome of political struggles between multiple players at the metropolitan centre and the peripheries of empire, rather than the workings of abstract norms.