It’s Still In My Heart, This Is My Country”: The Single Noongar Claim History

WEST AUSTRALIANA / ABORIGINAL

Analyses the historiography and associated anthropology of the South-West. Coupled with Noongar oral history, it examines the survival of Noongar tradition, law and custom, proving that many of the most common misconceptions regarding the disappearance of Noongar culture have no basis in fact. Existing histories tend to represent the Noongar people as passive victims of colonisers and governments; it is all to easy to assume that theirs is little more than one of attempted assimilation, separation and state intrusion. Noongars are rarely represented as active survivors – as people who retained their traditional ways and country in the face of politics aimed at eliminating all aspects of their heritage.

“Originally titled “Applicants Historical Report” and prepared as expert evidence in the native title case known as the Single Noongan Claim, this book analyses the historiography and associated anthropology of the South-west. Coupled with Noogar oral history, it examines the survival of Noongar tradition, law and custom, proving that many of the most common misconceptions regarding the disappearance of Noogar culture have no basis in fact.”
This is a history commissioned by Australia’s South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) that presents as evidence the Single Noongar Native Title Claim over metropolitan Perth and South-West Western Australia. The Claim hinges on the proof that the indigenous Noongar were a single unified people and not a number of unrelated Aboriginal groups as claimed by the state of Western Australia. The book shatters the myths that have influenced public perceptions of the Noongar. With its in-depth analysis, drawing on a vast array of writing on the subject, it is an outspoken history that tackles the controversial aspects of Native Title in Western Australia. Topics discussed range from journals of early figures such as Phillip Parker King, Alexander Collie, and Daisy Bates, through to more recent assessments by Green and Haebich. “It’s Still in My Heart, This Is My Country” is an invaluable historical resource that offers an assessment of how histories and narratives written about the Noongar people in the past have affected current public perceptions. This book has won two prestigious awards: the Human Rights Award for Literature (non-fiction) in Dec. 2010 and the 2010 Margaret Medcalf Award.
xxviii, 137 p., [14] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), facsims., maps, ports. ; 24 cm. illusts Includes bibliographical references (p.301-314) and index. #0618/R/160922/020523 Aboriginal Studies

Noongar (Australian people)  |  Noongar (Australian people) — History.  |  Aboriginal Australians — Western Australia — South-West — History.  |  Aboriginal Australians — Land tenure — Western Australia.  |  Native title (Australia) — Western Australia — South-West.  |  Law – Indigenous.  |  Native title – Claims.  |  Race relations – Representation – History.  |  Government policy – Assimilation.  |  Settlement and contacts – Colonisation – 1788-1850.  |  Noongar / Nyungar / Nyungah people (W41) (WA SI50)  |  History – Oral history.  |  Western Australia — History.  |  South West Western Australia (SW WA SH50, SI50)  |  Swan River (SW WA SH50-14)