Roving Mariners: Australian Aboriginal Whalers and Sealers in the Southern Oceans, 1790-1870 by Lynette Russell

For most Australian Aboriginal people, the impact of colonialism was blunt: dispossession, dislocation, disease, murder, and missionization. Yet another story of Australian history has remained untold: one of enterprise and entrepreneurship, of Aboriginal people seizing the opportunity to profit from life at sea as whalers and sealers.

In some cases participation was voluntary; in others it was more invidious and involved kidnapping and trade in women. In many cases, the individuals maintained and exercised a degree of personal autonomy and agency within their new circumstances.

This book explores some of their lives and adventures by analysing archival records of the maritime industry, captains' logs, ships' records, and the sailors' journals, among other artifacts. Much of what we know about this period comes from the writings of Herman Melville, and in this book, Melville's whaling novels act as a prism through which we understand relations aboard ships.

Drawing on both history and literature, Roving Mariners provides a comprehensive history of Australian Aboriginal whaling and sealing. (back cover)