Author: DEWAR, MICKEY.
Title: The 'Black War' in Arnhem Land: Missionaries and the Yolngu 1908-1940.
Description: First Edition; Cr. 4to; pp. xiv, 107, (4); text illustrated with 6 pages of b/w. photographs, several illustrations in text, 3 maps, bibliography, index, bound in original stiff illustrated wrappers, wrapper with a small rub mark otherwise a very good copy. Darwin, NT: Australian National University North Australian Research Unit; 1992. In the 1930s Australia was stunned by a series of seemingly inexplicable murders of non-Aboriginal people perpetrated by the Arnhem Land Yolngu. After eight deaths in two years, newspapers were calling it the 'Black War'. Missionaries, police and the media were equally convinced they knew the reasons for the killings. Following the arrest and trials of the alleged killers, non-Aboriginal Australia was forced to debate the issue of their occupation of the continent. In the process, issues of Aboriginal rights to justice and defence of their land were raised.

Keywords: Australian Aboriginal History Local History Northern Territory