My present first priority in completing my history of Australia's New England is the creation of a full working draft for the history of New England's Aboriginal peoples to 1788 starting with origins and journey. Where and when did their ancestors come from? How did they get to Sahul? Who did they mix with on the way? When did they arrive in the area that I call New England? How did they get there?
I covered this material in my lecture series to Armidale U3A but now need to consolidate and update it. Power points are a real trap here. A set of summary power points does not a history make! I had become very dissatisfied with my work but then realised that was silly. I am presenting a story, really a series of hypotheses linked to create a synthesis. No matter how much time I spend there will always be errors of fact and interpretation. Better to get it out there so that it can be critiqued, recognising that the pace of new discoveries will quickly over-run my analysis.
No comments:
Post a Comment