First Footprints

 First Footprints

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       January 11, 2014

 

Author  Scott Crane

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-74331-493-7
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

Website:    http://www.allenandunwin.com 

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Stemming from the stunning ABC series First Footprints – The epic story of the first Australians, comes this magnificent compilation of the series, one that you can return to time and time again, purely from the basis there is so much to be able to take in and digest. It is perhaps better to be able to return at your leisure and join the ancient people and their history as they travel, more than 60,000 years ago, to and from the land we now know as Australia.

Whilst we are aware of the Aboriginal inhabitants of this land their history, until now has always been something that was there but not always in the forefront of the modern day Australian culture. Political correctness often gets in the way, but by creating the series and then the book, Scott Crane has given us a fascinating history of people, who, thousands of years ago had it all worked out.  Not only did they travel vast distances, they survived and thrived.

They created their art galleries, had a conservation plan in place, managed the land, created new technologies, and established social and societal networks, trading routes and so much more.

Their history goes back so far it is almost unimaginable: the Ice Age and the Great Floods came and went and yet these remarkable people survived.

Interspersed amongst the pages there is a  collection of photographs, both old and new, which helps to give context to the vast amount of information that has been researched and documented, as well as the Aboriginal people’s remarkable adaptation to the climactic, climate and cultural changes of life down through the ages.

In this intricately researched look at this timeless, ancient society we are given a rare insight into just what it means to be Aboriginal; to be a people who were once, at one with their environment.

Non Fiction