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Henry Reynolds (historian)

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Henry Reynolds
FAHA, FASSA
Born1938 (age 85–86)
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
AwardsQueensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Literary Work Advancing Public Debate (2000)
Queensland Premier's History Book Award (2008)
Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction (2009)
Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction (2014)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Tasmania (BA [Hons], MA)
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Tasmania (2000–)
James Cook University (1965–98)
Main interestsAustralian colonial history
Aboriginal–white relations in Australia
Notable worksThe Other Side of the Frontier (1981)

Henry Reynolds FAHA FASSA (born 1938) is an Australian historian whose primary work has focused on the frontier conflict between European settlers in Australia and Indigenous Australians. He was the first academic historian to advocate for Indigenous land rights, becoming known with his first major work, The Other Side of the Frontier (1981).

Early life and education

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Henry Reynolds was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1938, the son of John Reynolds, who was a journalist who wrote the first biography of Edmund Barton.[1][2]

He attended Hobart High School.[3]

Following this, he attended the University of Tasmania, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History in 1960,[4] later gaining a Master of Arts in 1964.[5]

Career

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Reynolds taught in secondary schools in Australia and England.[1]

He joined the academic staff at Townsville University College (later James Cook University) in 1966.[1] In the 1970s, he undertook an oral history project.[3] He served as associate professor of history and politics from 1982 until his retirement in 1998.[1]

In 2000 Reynolds became professorial fellow at the University of Tasmania in Launceston.[3]

As of September 2022, Reynolds was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Tasmania.[6]

Historical research and publications

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Main article: Australian history wars

The Other Side of the Frontier, published in 1981, was ground-breaking in that it was the first major work by an historian to write Australian history from an Aboriginal perspective.[3]

In many books and academic articles Reynolds has sought to explain his view of the high level of violence and conflict involved in the colonisation of Australia, and the Aboriginal resistance to numerous massacres of Indigenous people. Reynolds, along with many other historians, estimate that up to 3,000 Europeans and at least 20,000 Aboriginal Australians were killed directly in the frontier violence, and many more Aboriginal peoples died indirectly through the introduction of European diseases and starvation caused by being forced from their productive tribal lands.[7]

Geoffrey Blainey and Keith Windschuttle categorise his approach as a black armband view of Australian history. In 2002, Windschuttle, in his book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847,[8][9] disputed whether the colonial settlers of Australia committed widespread genocide against Indigenous Australians, and accused Reynolds of misrepresenting, inventing, or exaggerating evidence. Subsequently, in Whitewash: on Keith Windschuttle's fabrication of Aboriginal history (2003; edited by Robert Manne), it was argued that Windschuttle failed to meet the criteria that he used to assess "orthodox historians" and his accusations were thus flawed.[10][11]

Friendship with Eddie Mabo

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Reynolds struck up a friendship with Eddie Mabo, who was then a groundsman and gardener at James Cook University. In his book Why Weren't We Told?, Reynolds describes the talks they had regarding Mabo's people's rights to their lands, on Murray Island, in the Torres Strait. Reynolds writes:

Eddie [...] would often talk about his village and about his own land, which he assured us would always be there when he returned because everyone knew it belonged to his family. His face shone when he talked of his village and his land.

So intense and so obvious was his attachment to his land that I began to worry about whether he had any idea at all about his legal circumstances. [...] I said something like: "You know how you've been telling us about your land and how everyone knows it's Mabo land? Don't you realise that nobody actually owns land on Murray Island? It's all crown land."

He was stunned. [...] How could the whitefellas question something so obvious as his ownership of his land?[12]

Reynolds looked into the issue of Indigenous land ownership in international law, and encouraged Mabo to take the matter to court. "It was there over the sandwiches and tea that the first step was taken which led to the Mabo judgement in June 1992".[12] Mabo then talked to lawyers, and Reynolds "had little to do with the case itself from that time", although he and Mabo remained friends until the latter's death in January 1992.[13] Reynolds' 1970s oral history project however contributed to the High Court's recognition of land rights.[3]

Other activities

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In September 2022, Reynolds appeared with filmmaker Rachel Perkins at a National Press Club of Australia address, soon after the airing of Perkins' SBS Television series, The Australian Wars.[14]

Awards and honours

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Henry Reynolds has received the following awards and honours:

Conference

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In tribute to Reynolds' seventieth year, the conference Race, Nation, History: A Conference in Honour of Henry Reynolds was held in August 2008. It was sponsored by the Australian National University's Research School of the Humanities and the Research School of the Social Sciences, the National Library of Australia, and the University of Tasmania. Larissa Behrendt of University of Technology Sydney was among the speakers.[2][21][a]

Personal life

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In December 1963 Henry Reynolds married Margaret Reynolds (née Lyne),[1] who served as an ALP senator for Queensland in Federal Parliament from 1983 until 1999.[15] Their daughter is Anna Reynolds, the Lord Mayor of Hobart.[23][24]

Major works

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  • Aborigines and Settlers: the Australian Experience, 1788–1939 (ed) (1972) ISBN 030493917X
  • The Other Side of the Frontier : Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of Australia (1981) ISBN 0-14-022475-0
  • Frontier; Aborigines, Settlers and Land (1987) ISBN 0-04-994005-8
  • Dispossession; Black Australia and White Invaders (1989) ISBN 1-86448-141-2
  • With the White People (1990) ISBN 0-14-012834-4
  • Race Relations in North Queensland (1993) (ed) ISBN 0-86443-484-7
  • Aboriginal Sovereignty: Reflections on Race, State and Nation (1996) ISBN 1-86373-969-6
  • This Whispering in Our Hearts (1998) ISBN 1-86448-581-7
  • Why Weren't We Told? (2000) ISBN 0-14-027842-7
  • Black Pioneers (2000) ISBN 0-14-029820-7
  • An Indelible Stain? The Question of Genocide in Australia's History (2001) ISBN 0-670-91220-4
  • The Law Of The Land (2003) ISBN 0-14-100642-0
  • Fate of a Free People (2004) ISBN 0-14-300237-6
  • Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (2008) ISBN 978-0-521-88118-0
  • Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds (eds.), What's Wrong with ANZAC? The Militarisation of Australian History, Sydney, NewSouth Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1-74223-151-8
  • A History of Tasmania (2011) ISBN 9780521548373
  • Forgotten War (2013, NewSouth Books) ISBN 978-1-74223-392-5
  • Unnecessary Wars (2016, NewSouth Books) ISBN 9781742234809
  • Truth Telling: History, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement (2021, NewSouth Books) ISBN 9781742236940
  • Tongerlongeter: First Nations Leader & Tasmanian War Hero. With Nicholas Clements (2021, NewSouth Books) ISBN 9781742236384

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Selected papers from the conference were published in a volume by Australian Scholarly Publishing, but do not appear to be otherwise available.[22]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Papers of Henry Reynolds". Trove. 17 July 1998. Retrieved 28 November 2023. Reference: Who's who in Australia 2001, pp. 1488-1489
  2. ^ a b "Race, Nation, History: A Conference in Honour of Henry Reynolds". Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e "In Conversation with Henry Reynolds". Events - University of Tasmania, Australia. 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  4. ^ Reynolds, Henry (1960), Some aspects of the intellectual and cultural life of nineteenth century Australia, retrieved 25 November 2023
  5. ^ Reynolds, Henry (1963), The island colony : Tasmania, society and politics, 1880-1900, [Hobart], retrieved 25 November 2023
  6. ^ "Writing History After Mabo: Henry Reynolds and Nick Brodie". Events - University of Tasmania, Australia. September 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  7. ^ "The Statistics of Frontier Conflict". Kooriweb.org. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  8. ^ Bowdler, Sandra. "Review of 'The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. Volume One, Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847′". Australian Archaeological Association. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  9. ^ Ianziti, Gary. "Windschuttle at War: The Politics of Historiography in Australia. Paper presented to the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference" (PDF). QUT ePrints. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  10. ^ Manne, Robert, ed. (2003), Whitewash: on Keith Windschuttle's fabrication of Aboriginal history, Black Inc, ISBN 978-0-9750769-0-3
  11. ^ Henderson, Gerard (7 December 2004). "The trouble with Keith Windschuttle". The Age. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  12. ^ a b Reynolds, Henry, Why Weren't We Told?, 1999, ISBN 0-14-027842-7, p. 188
  13. ^ Reynolds, Henry, Why Weren't We Told?, 1999, p. 191
  14. ^ IN FULL: Rachel Perkins & Professor Henry Reynolds' Address to the National Press Club of Australia on YouTube (Address 23 November 2022; published on YouTube 15 September 2023.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Guide to the Papers of Henry Reynolds – Biographical Note" (2018), National Library of Australia
  16. ^ "1999 Human Rights Medal and Awards". Humanrights.gov.au Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
  17. ^ "Academy Fellow – Professor Henry Reynolds FASSA, FAHA". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  18. ^ "Fellow Profile: Henry Reynolds". Australian Academy of the Humanities. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Australian Humanist of the Year", Humanists Australia
  20. ^ "JCU graduation this weekend". JCU Australia. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  21. ^ Ryan, Lyndall (2008). "Race, Nation, History: A Conference in Honour of Henry Reynolds, Canberra, 29-30 August 2008". Labour History (95): 247–249. doi:10.2307/27516321. ISSN 0023-6942. JSTOR 27516321.
  22. ^ Attwood, Bain, ed. (2009). Frontier, race, nation : Henry Reynolds and Australian history. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 9781921509445.
  23. ^ Beniuk, David (27 July 2012). "Historian's daughter takes on Wilkie". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  24. ^ "Lord Mayor Councillor Anna Reynolds". City of Hobart. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
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