Reading Country: Hidden Homage to a Man of Many Virtues

WEST AUSTRALIANA Aboriginal

Reading Country is about the relationship between two 19th century explorers of the interior of Australia, one an Aboriginal Tommy Windich, and the other a European, John Forrest. The relationship is illuminated by steganography on the gravestone of Tommy Windich. The gravestone was commissioned by John Forrest and his brother Alexander and the steganography is a hitherto hidden text detailing the attitudes of the designer of the gravestone, presumed to be John Forrest.

Coincident with the death of his father and preparation of a gravestone to mark his grave, his interest was renewed in the gravestone of Tommy Windich, which he remembered from his childhood at Esperance. Tommy Windich was a Ballardong Noongar who had died in Esperance in 1876 and was buried near the shore of Esperance Bay. The realization that the gravestone text and inscription contained rich steganography led to the development of an essay on the gravestone and its cultural implications.

Allan Wills was born in Esperance Western Australia and spent his childhood years there during the 60s and 70s. Out of school life at Esperance consisted of visiting the farms of his extended family, bush picnics, and hunting and fishing on the beautiful beaches of Esperance with his immediate and extended family.

• ix, 76 pages : colour illustrations, map, facsimiles ; 24 cm
• 030624
• Windich, Tommy, 1840?-1876
• Aboriginal Australians — Western Australia — Biography
• Explorers — Australia — Biography
• Cryptography
• Australia — Discovery and exploration
• Western Australia — Discovery and exploration
• Australian