'A Bloody Difficult Subject'

Bain Attwood is a professor of history at Monash University in Melbourne. He is the author of several books, including Telling the Truth about Aboriginal History (Allen & Unwin, 2005), Possession: Batman’s Treaty and the Matter of History (Melbourne University Press, 2009) and Empire and the Making of Native Title (Cambridge University Press, 2020). A graduate of universities on both sides of the Tasman, he has held fellowships at the Australian National University and Cambridge University and a visiting professorship at Harvard University. Empire and the Making of Native Title was the joint winner of the New Zealand Historical Association’s 2021 W.H. Oliver Prize for the best book on any aspect of New Zealand history, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Ernest Scott Prize for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand or the history of colonisation.

By making this careful exposition, [Attwood] has done the discipline of history everywhere a great service.’ — Tim Rowse, Inside Story