Rights and Redemption History, Law and Indigenous People

This book examines the role of history in key Indigenous rights cases which occurred during the era of the Howard government, when Indigenous rights and the place of Aboriginal people in the national story were repudiated in a variety of government laws and policies. The book investigates how the courts have made use of historians as expert witnesses, and how the colonial past has been framed and understood by the courts. This is an important historical record of a unique period of litigation in Indigenous affairs in Australia.

Alexander Reilly is an associate professor in the School of Law at the University of Adelaide, and was formerly a senior lecturer at Macquarie University. Ann Genovese is senior lecturer and ARC postdoctoral fellow in law at the University of Melbourne. Ann Curthoys is Manning Clark Professor of History at the Australian National University and an ARC Professorial Fellow.