Readings.com.au: Peter Sutton

The Politics Of Suffering (New Edition)

The Politics of Suffering cuts through the cant and offers fresh insight and hope for a new era in Indigenous politics.

"Incandescent, emotional, tragic and challenging' - Marcia Langton

Peter Sutton is a fearless and authoritative voice in Aboriginal politics.

In this groundbreaking book, he asks why, after three decades of liberal thinking, has the suffering and grief in so many Aboriginal communities become worse?

The picture Sutton presents is tragic. He marshals shocking evidence against the failures of the past, and argues provocatively that three decades of liberal consensus on Aboriginal issues has collapsed.

Sutton is a leading Australian anthropologist who has lived and worked closely with Aboriginal communities. He combines clear-eyed, original observation with deep emotional engagement. The Politics of Suffering cuts through the cant and offers fresh insight and hope for a new era in Indigenous politics.

Peter Sutton is an anthropologist and linguist who has worked with Aboriginal people since 1969. He speaks three Cape York languages and as an expert on Aboriginal land ownership has assisted with over fifty land rights cases. He has authored or edited twelve books, including Native Title in Australia: an Ethnographic Perspective, regarded as the most authoritative work in its field. He is an Affiliate Professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide, and the Division of Anthropology, South Australian Museum. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

The Politics of Suffering

Winner of the 2009 Manning Clarke House Cultural Award and the 2010 John Button Prize for Political Writing.

Have Australian Aboriginal communities become places of increased suffering because of the progressive policies of the 1970s–2000s? In this provocative book, Australia's leading anthropologist, Peter Sutton, looks at these decades of optimism and grief and argues that there has not been a better quality of life for Indigenous Australians. For a significant number, the last thirty years has been a period of decline in safety, in health, in literacy and numeracy, in employment, and in hope. How can this be so? Peter Sutton points to the failures of the past and looks forward to the hopeful rise of a new era.

Peter Sutton is an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow at the University of Adelaide. A world-renowned anthropologist and field linguist, he has worked on land claims across Australia since 1969. His books include Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia and Native Title in Australia: an Ethnographic Perspective.

Strangers On The Shore: Early Coastal Contact In Australia

Contacts between Indigenous Australians and outsiders — Macassans, Dutch, English, French and others — are known to have occurred for over 400 years. This book explores these diverse, subtle, dynamic and volatile first encounters from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives. It also looks at the myriad elements of these cross-cultural exchanges, which resulted in profound outcomes for the First Australians.

Dreamings: The Art Of Aboriginal Australia

Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia introduces the reader to the extraordinary and arresting art practised by a unique people. Through illuminating narrative and with over 150 full colour illustrations, this book reveals a culture which is among the most ancient known, yet one whose artistic vitality is remarkable. In both traditional and more recently introduced media, Aboriginal artists evoke their beliefs about the universe and their relationships with places, animals, plants and other people. Why they do this, and what their art and beliefs mean in today's world, are in part the subject of this book. In being introduced to the art of Aboriginal Australia the reader will see something of the timeless value of the oldest continuous art tradition in the world