Henry Reynolds

Henry Reynolds (b 1938), historian, grew up in Hobart and was educated at Hobart High School and the University of Tasmania. In 1965 he accepted a lectureship at James Cook University in Townsville, which sparked an interest in the history of relations between settlers and Aborigines. His pioneering scholarly work, especially The Other Side of the Frontier (1981), was critical in changing understandings of the Australian frontier. With The Law of the Land (1987), this prolific historian increasingly engaged with contemporary legal and political issues. In morally charged works such as This Whispering in our Hearts (1998) and Why Weren't We Told (1999), this most lucid of writers gave the cause of Reconciliation a historical underpinning. In 2000 he took up a professorial fellowship at the University of Tasmania.

Further reading: H Reynolds, Why weren't we told ?, Melbourne, 1999; and 'History from the Frontier', in Bain Attwood (compiler), Boundaries of the Past, Melbourne, 1990; Cochrane, Peter, 'Hunting not Travelling', Eureka Street, 8/ 8, 1998.

Bain Attwood

Books by Henry Reynolds
Compiler, Aborigines and Settlers: The Australian Experience 1788–1939, Melbourne: Cassell Australia, 1972.
Editor, Race Relations in North Queensland, Townsville: History Department, James Cook University, Townsville, 1978; 2nd edition 1993.
The Other Side of the Frontier. Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia, Townsville: History Department, James Cook University, 1981; Melbourne: Penguin, 1982.
The Breaking of the Great Australian Silence: Aborigines in Australian Historiography, London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, 1984 (pamphlet).
The Law of the Land, Melbourne: Penguin, 1987; 2nd edn, 1992; 3rd edition, 2003.
Frontier: Aborigines, Settlers and Land, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987; 2nd edition 1997.
compiler, Dispossession: Black Australians and White Invaders, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989.
With the White People, Melbourne: Penguin, 1990; 2nd edition as Black Pioneers, Melbourne, Penguin, 1999; 2nd edition 2000.
With Ian Clark, Sharing History. A sense for all Australians of a shared ownership of their history, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994.
Fate of a Free People, Melbourne: Penguin, 1995, 2nd edition, 2004.
Aboriginal Sovereignty: Reflections on Race, State and Nation, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1996.
This Whispering in Our Hearts, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1998
Why Weren't We Told?: A Personal Search for the Truth About Our History, Melbourne: Viking, 1999.
An Indelible Stain? The Question of Genocide in Australia's History, Melbourne: Viking, 2001.
with Bruce Dennett, The Aborigines, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002.
North of Capricorn: The Untold Story of Australia's North, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2003.
Nowhere People, Camberwell, Vic: Viking, 2005.