Lincoln (Neb.) - Nov. 7, 2001 - Robert Foster, an expert on Aboriginal and Australian history, will speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Nov. 12. Foster will deliver "A Report on the Aboriginal History Wars in Australia" at 3 p.m. in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Foster co-authored "Fatal Collisions: The South Australian Frontier and the Violence of Memory." The book addresses violence on the South Australian frontier and how it has been remembered in Anglo-Australian accounts. It focuses on an incident in 1849, when South Australian rancher James Brown was charged with fatally shooting nine Aboriginal people. Unable to find witnesses, the government was forced to drop the case despite the magistrate's confidence of his guilt.
Two generations later, a glowing biography of Brown's life noted merely that he was involved in a charge of poisoning an Aboriginal man, but emerged from the trial with a clean slate. Foster's book addresses the questions of why the details of the event and legal proceedings were changed.
Foster's visit is sponsored by the Human Rights/Human Diversity
Initiative in the UNL College of Arts and Sciences and a grant from the
Ford Foundation.
For questions regarding these releases, contact:
tsimons1@unl.edu
(402) 472-8514, Fax: (402) 472-7825