Meeting the Waylo: Aboriginal Encounters in the Archipelago by Tiffany Shellam

In-store location: Shelf 2.14

By Tiffany Shellam, UWA Publishing, Paperback, 264 pages

Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2020: Non-Fiction

This book explores the experiences of Indigenous Australians who participated in Australian exploration enterprises in the early nineteenth century.

These Indigenous travellers, often referred to as 'guides', 'native aides', or 'intermediaries' have already been cast in a variety of ways by historians: earlier historiographies represented them as passive side-players in European heroic efforts of Discovery, while scholarship in the 1980s, led by Henry Reynolds, re-cast these individuals as 'black pioneers'. Historians now acknowledge that Aborigines 'provided information about the customs and languages of contiguous tribes, and acted as diplomats and couriers arranging in advance for the safe passage of European parties'. 

About the author:

Tiffany Shellam grew up in Perth, Western Australia. She moved to Melbourne to undertake an Arts degree before moving to Canberra to do a PhD in history at the Australian National University. Tiffany is currently lecturing in Indigenous History at Deakin University in Melbourne and has recently been awarded an Australian Academy of the Humanities Travelling Fellowship.