Books by Billy Griffiths
https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/deep-time-dreaming
Australian archaeology has been involved in a great enterprise over the last sixty years, uncover... more Australian archaeology has been involved in a great enterprise over the last sixty years, uncovering the deep past of a desert continent and the history of its first people. This book is a guide to the catchphrases of the discipline. It is a meditation on science and place, culture and politics, deep time and the Dreaming – and it is steeped in an appreciation of good writing and a well-turned phrase. Woven in amongst these quotations is the story of how, as a nation, we are coming to terms with ancient Australia.
The entries are drawn from letters and journals, histories and poems, newspapers and novels. Each has been chosen because it is a pithy summation of an issue. Combined, they map the development of the field and encourage a dialogue between science and the humanities.
When Australian Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam left Sydney in June 1971, the People’s Republic o... more When Australian Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam left Sydney in June 1971, the People’s Republic of China was a forbidding unknown in Australia – the subject of heated debate, charged imagination and Cold War paranoia. When he returned from his tour of Asia, the debate had irrevocably changed. On the fortieth anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations, The China Breakthrough reflects on the political adventure story that propelled this relationship into being. It follows Whitlam’s daring visit to China in 1971, and explores the dramatic international events and acts of secret diplomacy that underlie this key episode of diplomatic history.
The China Breakthrough unpacks the theatre of the Whitlam visit, its political intrigue, and its long-lasting cultural, political and diplomatic implications. Griffiths argues that this was a pivotal moment in Australia’s relations with Asia, a revealing test of the Australia-America alliance, and a remarkable case of foreign policy engineered from Opposition.
Papers by Billy Griffiths
Republished by the ABC as 'A Story of Rupture and Resilience', 17 Nov 2017.
Republished by the Au... more Republished by the ABC as 'A Story of Rupture and Resilience', 17 Nov 2017.
Republished by the Australian Geographic and Phys with the original title, 17 Nov 2017.
When Vere Gordon Childe returned to Australia in 1957 a er thirty-six years abroad, he despaired ... more When Vere Gordon Childe returned to Australia in 1957 a er thirty-six years abroad, he despaired at the lack of research into Australia’s Aboriginal past. Australian archaeology was the domain of curators and stone tool collectors whose work was embedded in evolutionary assumptions and questionable practices. In the final weeks of his life, on 16 September 1957, Childe met and befriended the historian and archaeologist John Mulvaney. is paper draws on their brief en- counters to reflect on the state of archaeology in Australia in the 1950s, immediately before the boom in archaeological research in the 1960s that revolutionised the conventional narrative of Australian history. rough a close reading of the early years of Mulvaney’s career it argues that the excavations at Fromm’s Landing from 1956 to 1963 acted as a catalyst for research and marked the dawn of a new era for Australian Aboriginal archaeology. e excavation involved women and men, historians and archaeologists, teachers and students, and it produced the artefacts that underpinned Mulvaney’s landmark 1961 article, where he reviewed existing research and posed the large, continental questions that would dominate the next decade of archaeological investigation.
Feral cats and pigs, mission grass and climate change - in western Arnhem Land, Indigenous ranger... more Feral cats and pigs, mission grass and climate change - in western Arnhem Land, Indigenous rangers are battling many environmental threats. Through painting and performance, they are also telling 'healthy country' stories.
Book Reviews by Billy Griffiths
Review of Benjamin T. Jones' This Time: Australia's Republican Past and Future (Black Inc., 2018).
Review of Nick Brodie's The Vandemonian War: The Secret History of Britain’s Tasmanian Invasion (... more Review of Nick Brodie's The Vandemonian War: The Secret History of Britain’s Tasmanian Invasion (Hardie Grant Books, 2017).
Review of Jill Weintroub's Dorothea Bleek: A Life of Scholarship (Wits University Press, 2016).
Review of Ian McClean's Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art (NewSouth 2016).
Review of Anna Clark's Private Lives, Public History (Melbourne University Publishing, 2016).
Review of Stephen FitzGerald's 'Comrade Ambassador: Whitlam's Beijing Envoy' (Melbourne Universit... more Review of Stephen FitzGerald's 'Comrade Ambassador: Whitlam's Beijing Envoy' (Melbourne University Press, 2015).
Review of James Curran's Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War (Melbourne University Press, 2015).
Review of Ruth A. Morgan's Running Out? Water in Western Australia (UWA Publishing, 2015).
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Books by Billy Griffiths
The entries are drawn from letters and journals, histories and poems, newspapers and novels. Each has been chosen because it is a pithy summation of an issue. Combined, they map the development of the field and encourage a dialogue between science and the humanities.
The China Breakthrough unpacks the theatre of the Whitlam visit, its political intrigue, and its long-lasting cultural, political and diplomatic implications. Griffiths argues that this was a pivotal moment in Australia’s relations with Asia, a revealing test of the Australia-America alliance, and a remarkable case of foreign policy engineered from Opposition.
Papers by Billy Griffiths
Republished by the Australian Geographic and Phys with the original title, 17 Nov 2017.
Book Reviews by Billy Griffiths
The entries are drawn from letters and journals, histories and poems, newspapers and novels. Each has been chosen because it is a pithy summation of an issue. Combined, they map the development of the field and encourage a dialogue between science and the humanities.
The China Breakthrough unpacks the theatre of the Whitlam visit, its political intrigue, and its long-lasting cultural, political and diplomatic implications. Griffiths argues that this was a pivotal moment in Australia’s relations with Asia, a revealing test of the Australia-America alliance, and a remarkable case of foreign policy engineered from Opposition.
Republished by the Australian Geographic and Phys with the original title, 17 Nov 2017.