A White Man's History of Aboriginal Australia
Pay the Rent is an unexpected history of Aboriginal Australia and challenges us all to remove our ‘white blindfold’.
It provides an understanding of Aboriginal social structure, knowledge systems, justice and environmental management – facts sadly lacking in Australian school teaching.
Background
Written by Claude Baxter, Pay the Rent questions the science and evidence of indigenous history. It leaves us asking ourselves ‘what did our forebears really do’ and ‘why are we still getting it so wrong, even today’?
The most significant aspect of this work is contextualisation - where did the First Nations people come from, what were their achievements, and how much had they already changed by the time of ‘first contact’?
The most significant aspect of this work is contextualisation - where did the First Nations people come from, what were their achievements, and how much had they already changed by the time of ‘first contact’?
Pay the Rent; A White Man's History of Aboriginal Australia
Pay the Rent is unique in the range it covers. It is a conscientiously contemporary work that proceeds from a disclaimer that is a requirement in all modern ethnography. The author has forebears who, like many of our forebears, paid no attention to the moral contradictions that formed the justification for history's greatest and fastest land-grab.
Out of Africa
Racially, these people are the same as Europeans. There is no science that supports racist views regarding European superiority, although this did remain a guiding myth of Australia's creation.
A Managed Landscape
Despite debates about whether they 'farmed', there is endless evidence that this was one of the most heavily managed landscapes on the planet. It produced abundance.
Peace and Tranquility
Aboriginal social systems produced an environment of mutual respect between almost 400 languages and nations. There were no wars of succession.
Abundance
Through extraordinarily deep understandings of the environment, species and seasons, Aboriginal people thrived in areas now called 'deserts'. THey did not 'roam' but had set territories.
About the Author
Claude, with a BA from LaTrobe and a higher degree from Freie Universität Berlin, is spurred on by the reaction from his adult education students who, despite being well-read, were often amazed and confronted by the content of his classes. ‘Why weren’t we ever told any of this at school!’
"'Pay the Rent' has helped open my eyes to the extraordinary achievements of the the Indigenous people who shaped this land for millennia before 'civilisation' was invented."
Suzy Johnstone
"The truth behind British duplicity in the creation of yet another set of colonies is eye-opening. The governors did not perform as instructed and hid deaths from the public and the Home Office."
Alex Collier
"This book points to the facts that Tony Abbot's new history is a shameless validation of early behaviour and continues the myths of 'settlement'. "
Oliver Highbury
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Acknowledgement of Country
Pay the Rent acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which we all live, learn and work and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of the First Nations of Australia.
Pay the Rent hopes to contribute to a wider understanding of a history tainted by murder, denigration and a general incomprehension of the determinants of 'settlement'. Many aspects of these circumstances continue in the modern form of structural poverty and the accompanying lack of access to health and education services we all hold for granted. The myth of a 'fair go' is still used to disparage Aboriginal people.