Aboriginal Convicts: Australian, Khoisan, and Maori Exiles: Aborigines, Khoisan and Maori Exiles in the Australian Penal Colonies

When most of us imagine an Australian convict we see an Englishman or an Irish lass transported for stealing a loaf of bread or a scrap of cloth.Contrary to this popular image, however, Australian penal settlements were actually far more ethnically diverse, comprising individuals transported from British colonies throughout the world. As Kristyn Harman shows in Aboriginal Convicts, there were also a surprising number of indigenous convicts transported from different British settlements, including ninety Aboriginal convicts from all over Australia, thirty-four Khoisan from the Cape Colony (South Africa) and six Maori from New Zealand. These men and women were taken prisoner in the context of the frontier wars over their lands, and shipped to penal colonies in Norfolk Island, Cockatoo Island and Van Diemen’s Land.Through painstaking original research this book uncovers their life stories, which have often been overlooked by or erased from the grand narratives of British and Australian co