Edit position

Last set 2 weeks, 5 days ago. Manual moves override automatic placement until the next shelfie/spine match.

When the wattles bloom again : the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe

by Shirley W. Wiencke

This resource documents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture, featuring historical terminology and references to deceased individuals that may be culturally sensitive.

Accession 9780959054903 ISBN 9780959054903 Publisher The Author, East Kew

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

When the wattles bloom again : the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe spine

When the wattles bloom again : the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe cover

Live

No live

CONNECTIONS

No connections

State

on_shelf: True
position_updated_at: 2026-05-05 17:12
orientation: vertical

Details

Physical

binding_type: Hard Back
dimensions: none captured
spine_text: WILLIAM BARAK Last chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe Shirley W. Wiencke

LOCATION HISTORY

C 1 Current vertical

3 months, 2 weeks ago

C 1 vertical

3 months, 3 weeks ago

C 1 vertical

3 months, 3 weeks ago

C 1 vertical

4 months, 1 week ago

C 1 vertical

5 months, 2 weeks ago

Book Location

Updated 2 weeks, 5 days ago

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

Live

No live

Vernon snapshot

Frozen copy of Vernon's record from the last sync. Fields tagged → flow back into the Pulse record.

Never synced from Vernon

Identity

name→ title

When the wattles bloom again : the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe

vernon_id

—

accession_no→ accession_number

—

vernon_slug

—

Drives Pulse state

curr_loc_status→ on_shelf

—

location_name

—

location_reason

—

isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)

—

Descriptive

production_date

—

object_type

—

object_status

—

brief_description

—

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)

—

tags→ tags

—

subject_people

—

subject_objects

—

Topics and Themes

1. **Colonial Dispossession & the Frontier**
The book is set against the backdrop of British colonisation of the Port Phillip district, tracing how the seizure of Aboriginal land — including the infamous Batman "purchase" of 1835, which Barak witnessed as a boy — destroyed Wurundjeri country and ways of life. The violence, displacement, and competition over land between settlers and First Nations people runs throughout the narrative.

Connect to books about: frontier history, colonial land seizure, settler colonialism, the Batman Treaty, Australian colonial violence.

---

2. **Aboriginal Leadership & Political Advocacy**
Barak was far more than a traditional elder — he was a tireless negotiator and spokesman who walked to Parliament House, engaged governors and politicians, and used newspapers to fight for his people's rights. The book traces the arc of Indigenous political agency even under extreme colonial constraint.

Connect to books about: Indigenous leadership, Aboriginal rights movements, political resistance, First Nations self-determination.

---

3. **Mission Reserves & the Protection System**
A detailed thread of the book is the history of reserves and missions — Goulburn, Narre Warren, Acheron Station, and Coranderrk — and the so-called "Scheme of Protection" that governed Aboriginal lives. The Board of Protection's attempts to close Coranderrk are central to understanding how colonial bureaucracy controlled and dismantled communities.

Connect to books about: Aboriginal protection legislation, mission history, institutionalisation of Indigenous peoples, Coranderrk station.

---

4. **Cultural Survival, Ceremony & Identity**
Despite profound upheaval, Barak worked to preserve Wurundjeri lore, ceremony, and cultural knowledge. The book covers tribal gatherings, initiation rites, and legends, showing how cultural identity was maintained — and contested — across generations under colonialism.

Connect to books about: Indigenous cultural preservation, oral tradition, ceremony and kinship, Kulin Nation peoples.

---

5. **Indigenous Art as Testimony**
In his later life, Barak painted and drew Wurundjeri ceremonies using a blend of European and traditional materials — ochre, charcoal, watercolour, and pencil — and is now recognised as a significant Aboriginal artist of the nineteenth century. His art was an act of both cultural memory and communication with settler audiences.

Connect to books about: Aboriginal art history, visual sovereignty, cross-cultural artistic exchange, colonial-era Indigenous artists.

---

6. **Biography & Individual Life Under Structural Oppression**
The book is a biography of one man spanning nearly a century of change (c.1823–1903), showing how a single life can illuminate vast historical forces. Barak's personal losses — including the death of his wife and child — sit alongside his public role, humanising the structural violence of colonialism.

Connect to books about: postcolonial biography, life writing, Indigenous memoir and autobiography, microhistory.

---

7. **Race Relations & Colonial Contact Zones**
The book documents the full spectrum of relationships between Aboriginal people and colonisers — conflict, patronage, friendship, and exploitation. Figures like the Port Phillip Native Police Corps and colonial philanthropists like Anne Fraser Bon illustrate the complicated and often contradictory nature of cross-racial contact.

Connect to books about: race relations in Australia, colonial humanitarianism, cross-cultural encounter, settler attitudes toward Indigenous peoples.

---

8. **Land Rights, Memory & Country**
Coranderrk station — the reserve Barak called home and fought to protect — represents the deeper theme of Country: the profound spiritual and custodial relationship Aboriginal people have with land. The threat of its closure embodied the existential stakes of colonial land policy for the Wurundjeri.

Connect to books about: Aboriginal land rights, Native Title, the concept of Country, environmental and spiritual connections to land.

When the wattles bloom again : the life and times of William Barak, last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe

Book Images

TAGS

CONNECTIONS

State

Details

LOCATION HISTORY

Book Location

Book Images

Vernon snapshot

Topics and Themes