BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2016–17 Yijarni: true stories from Gurindji Country edited by Felicity Meakins and Erika Charola (August 2016)
On 23 August 1966, approximately two hundred Gurindji stockmen and their families walked off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory protesting against poor working conditions and the taking of their land by pastoralists. While it is well known that the Walk Off was driven by the poor treatment of Aboriginal workers, what is less well known is the previous decades of massacres and killings, stolen children and other abuses by early colonists. Told in both English and Gurindji, these compelling and detailed oral accounts of the events that Gurindji elders either witnessed or heard from their parents and grandparents, will ignite the interest of audiences nationally and internationally and challenge those who question the extent of frontier battles and the legitimacy of the Stolen Generations.
Yijarni was launched by Senator Patrick Dodson with then CEO Russell Taylor on Friday 19 August 2016 at the Freedom Day Festival in Kalkarinji, Northern Territory.
Overturning Aqua Nullius: securing Aboriginal water rights by Virginia Marshall (February 2017)
Winner of the 2015 Stanner Award, Overturning Aqua Nullius aims to cultivate a new understanding of Aboriginal water rights and interests in the context of Aboriginal water concepts and water policy development in Australia. Aboriginal peoples in Australia have the oldest living cultures in the world. From 1788 the British colonisation of Australia marginalised Aboriginal communities from land and water resources and their traditional rights and interests. More recently, the national water reforms further disenfranchised Aboriginal communities from their property rights in water, continuing to embed severe disadvantage. Overturning Aqua Nullius aims to cultivate a new understanding of Aboriginal water rights and interests in the context of Aboriginal water concepts and water policy development in Australia.
Something about emus: Bininj stories from Western Arnhem Land edited by Murray Garde (April 2017)
In this bilingual, highly illustrated, full-colour publication, Something about emus reveals valuable ecological knowledge in a collection of essays by senior members of the Bininj Kunwok language group from Kakadu National Park and Western Arnhem Land. Something about emus goes beyond biology and ecology to encompass other culturally important domains such as the visual and verbal arts, music, ritual and the relationships between humans and animals. 
The book was launched in partnership with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language at the University of Melbourne by Bininj ecologist and land management Elder Dean Yibarbuk.
Alice’s daughter: lost mission child by Rhonda Collard-Spratt with Jacki Ferro (May 2017)
In 1954, aged three, Rhonda Collard-Spratt was taken from her Aboriginal family and placed on Carnarvon Native Mission, Western Australia. Growing up in the white world of chores and aprons, religious teachings and cruel beatings, Rhonda drew strength and healing from her mission brothers and sisters, her art, music and poetry. Alice’s daughter is the story of Rhonda’s search for culture and family as she faces violence, racism, foster families, and her father’s death in custody; one of the first deaths investigated as part of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Written in Rhonda’s distinctive voice and accompanied by her vibrant and powerful paintings and poetry, Alice’s daughter is fearless, compelling and intimate reading.
Alice’s Daughter was launched by poet, rapper, actor and writer Stephen Oliver to a packed crowd at Brisbane’s Avid Reader Bookstore on National Sorry Day in May 2017.
Gugu Badhun: People of the Valley of Lagoons by Yvonne Cadet-James, Robert Andrew James, Sue McGinty and Russell McGregor (June 2017)
Bridging historical scholarship and Aboriginal oral tradition, this innovative book tells the story of the Gugu Badhun people of the Valley of Lagoons in North Queensland. It provides new insights into Aboriginal–European interactions, and new understandings of how Aboriginal people sustained their identities and exercised agency. Much of the story is told in the words of the Gugu Badhun people themselves. Interviews are interspersed with commentary and analysis by the four authors, one of whom, Yvonne Cadet-James, is herself a Gugu Badhun elder. Gugu Badhun: People of the Valley of Lagoons was launched at the AIATSIS National Native Title Conference in June 2017.
Authorisation and decision-making in native title by Nick Duff (February 2017)
Authorisation and decision-making in native title interrogates the interface between the Australian legal system and the Indigenous legal, cultural and political systems. The assertion and management of native title rights involves collective action by sometimes large and disparate groups of Indigenous people. Contentious politics makes such collective action difficult and the courts will often be asked to decide whether group decisions have been validly made. In the last two decades, a vast and complex body of law and practice has developed to address this challenge. This book sets out the legal rules and their application in various situations and addresses key practical, ethical and political dimensions of native title decision-making.
Chinese editions
Five Aboriginal Studies Press titles were translated and published as Chinese editions for distribution, initially into Australian studies centres in China: Fight for liberty and freedom, Convincing ground, Mutton fish, Doreen Kartinyeri and Paint me black. Brokered through Professor David Walker, Chair of Australian Studies, Peking University, the translations were managed by Mr Li Yao from the Inner Mongolia Normal University, who, along with the Foundation for Australian Studies, provided funding for the translations. The titles were published in China by Beijing Time Chinese Publishing House. The series went on to win the Australia–China Council 2016 Special Award for Translation
Initiate partnerships with other publishers to produce materials for the educational sector
AIATSIS entered into an agreement with Cengage Learning Australia to produce an educational series for primary schools. It will align with the cross-curriculum priority of Indigenous cultures and histories and draw extensively on the AIATSIS collections. Books, themed student cards, teacher resource books and an online gallery will address three themes — country/place, people and culture. The lower primary series will be published in July 2018, middle primary in October 2018 and upper primary in January 2019. A revised edition of Aboriginal Study Press’ popular title The Little Red Yellow Black Book (3rd edition) will be included in each pack. This action was planned for 2017–18, but AIATSIS took an earlier opportunity to proceed.
Explore options for an AIATSIS public space.
As part of the development of AIATSIS’ Public Program Strategy, two options for a public exhibition space were developed. One involves extension of the AIATSIS building, and the other an internal refit. The extension option would form part of a broader plan to consolidate all AIATSIS staff in one location; improve vault capacity and conditions, and generate opportunities for community and the public to access the collections. Consultants have been engaged to generate construction design proposals, which are expected to be completed towards the of 2017. These will be used to select and make the case to fund one of these options.
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