The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians 1772-1839 by Colin Dyer

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners with front corners now protected with book tape. Inside covers and pages are suuned. Book is clean and binding is still very good.

This highly readable account opens a fascinating window and a fresh perspective on the early European exploration of Australia.

These French explorers and scientists kept journals, many of which, until very recently, remained obscure and untranslated. Their cultural insights are invaluable, sometimes shocking and always engaging.

Here are to be found detailed descriptions of the Aboriginal peoples' physical appearances, their clothing, nutrition, dwellings, fires, canoes and utensils along with attempts to understand their character and language.

The Aboriginal observers, however, displayed an equally keen anthropological interest in these strange apparitions arriving on their shores.

Turning the cultural telescope around, this volume provides an unexpected and revealing glimpse of the French travellers through Aboriginal eyes.

This book, and its illustrations, have drawn extensively on the collections of Fryer Library at the University of Queensland. (back cover)