Uncle William Cooper's passionate struggle against the dispossession of Aboriginal people and the denial of their rights and his heroic fight for them to become citizens in their own country has been widely commemorated and celebrated. By carefully reconstructing the historical losses his Yorta Yorta people suffered and endured, Uncle William Cooper: An Aboriginal Life Story reveals how the first seventy years of Cooper's life inspired the remarkable political work he undertook in the 1930s. Author of William Cooper An Aboriginal Life Story is Bain Attwood a Professor of History at Monash University and has held fellowships at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University.
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Focusing on Uncle Cooper's most important campaigns-his famous petition to the British king George for an Aboriginal representative in the Australian parliament, his call for a day of mourning after 150 years of colonisation, the walk-off of the Yorta Yorta people from Cumeroogunga reserve in 1939 and his opposition to the establishment of an Aboriginal regiment in the Second World War-this carefully researched study sheds important new light on the long struggle that Indigenous people have fought to have the truth about Australia's black history heard and win representation in Australia's political order.
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Bain Attwood is Professor of History at Monash University and has held fellowships at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. In 2010 his book Possession: Batman’s Treaty and the Matter of History won the Ernest Scott Prize for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand or colonial history. Previous works include Rights for Aborigines; Telling the Truth About Aboriginal History and Empire and The Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People. He is the co-editor of Telling Stories: Indigenous History and Memory in Australia and New Zealand and Protection and Empire: A Global History.
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Praise for William Cooper: An Aboriginal Life Story
"I have long been an admirer of William Cooper. He plumbed the pulses of political power to advocate for his people and for the Commonwealth to manage Aboriginal Affairs. A fine tribute to an influential and canny campaigner whose struggle for justice has gone unrecognised for too long." Senator Pat Dodson
"A remarkable biography of a remarkable man. Meticulously researched and deeply reflective. Bain Attwood’s biography of William Cooper is a rare example of a political life told in its full historical context. We see not only Cooper’s extraordinary struggle for 'his people' but the entire network of activists that inspired him. It’s hard to think of a biography that speaks as urgently and powerfully to Indigenous Australians’ long campaign for social, economic, and political justice." Mark McKenna
"A rich, thoughtful and incisive biography that places Cooper in country as much as time, and which draws out the strong moral bent of a man compelled to seek justice for his people." The Guardian "Retraces meticulously Uncle William Cooper's unwavering battle against the disposession of Aboriginal people and the denial of their fundamental rights." NITV
"In recalling this fine Australian, Bain Attwood has rendered his nation a service. The research is prodigious, the argument clearly presented, engaging and with ruthless logic. Readers will see the Australian tragedy clearly and convincingly. They will learn." The Canberra Times
"A powerful book ... a fitting tribute to Cooper's life and activism." ABR
"A thoroughly researched account of a man who achieved much against incredible odds." Good Reading
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Bain Attwood in 2010 his book Possession: Batman’s Treaty and the Matter of History won the Ernest Scott Prize for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand or colonial history. Previous works include Rights for Aborigines; Telling the Truth About Aboriginal History and Empire and The Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People. He is the co-editor of Telling Stories: Indigenous History and Memory in Australia and New Zealand and Protection and Empire: A Global History.
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