Darkiñung Recognition

The aboriginal people of the Hawkesbury/northern Blue Mountains area have been carelessly described for many years as belonging to the Dharug tribe. The appellation appears in most of the literature, so naturally Dharug was the term I picked up when referring to the local Aborigines in my books about Robert Forrester and Paul Bushell, published in 2009 and 2010 respectively. (Pictured is my mother's sketch which illustrates page 145 of the Forrester book.)

However Dr Geoff Ford has produced a document which has set me straight, as well as many others. His work was drawn to my attention in the Hawkesbury Historical Society Newsletter, No 102, February 2013, but it was originally submitted to the University of Sydney as a thesis in 2010 and published by the University in 2011. That thesis, in itself, is a fascinating 'outcome' of the 'process' of taking an abiding interest in local and family history. (Dr Ford is a member of the Hawkesbury Historical Society and the Everingham Family Association.)

Ford explored the known fact that historical records dating from Governor Phillip's day described the Aborigines inhabiting the Cumberland Plains (from the Georges River at Liverpool through to Parramatta and Blacktown) as speaking a different language to the Aborigines encountered by the earliest European explorers of the Hawkesbury River. Ford found that only the Aborigines living on the Cumberland Plains belonged to the Dharug (pronounced Tharoog) tribe. He's found that the correct name for the tribe occupying 'the mountain catchment of the branches of the Hawkesbury River below Warragamba, from the Hawkesbury floodplain to the Hunter River floodplain in the north', is Darkiñung (pronounced Darkinyung).

It’s too late to change the books already published by many authors, but books published since 2011 now have the opportunity to benefit from Ford's up-to-date and very thorough research findings. I for one will take care to use the correct term for the local Aborigines in my future writings about early Hawkesbury settlers.

For more details, please refer to Dr Geoff Ford's full 558 page thesis 2010, Darkinung Recognition, online at Sydney University Library, where you can also find a much shorter 'Brief' (summarising the issues and publishing Ford's findings without the extensive analyses), a two page note on geographic borders and a two page Abstract. Presentation of the thesis material in digital form, as a PDF file, makes it easy to find search terms. There are no restrictions on downloading or printing. Spread the word!

Overcoming Obstacles to Publishing

While sorting some files today, I came across my attempt to interest Melbourne University Press (MUP) in the idea of publishing my Forrester book. That was six years ago, but it reminded me of the hurdles a writer needs to jump in order to get a book in front of readers.

On 12 March 2007 I submitted my proposal to MUP electronically, completing the form on their website. On 3 April 2007 I received a request for several sample chapters, which again were forwarded electronically, this time via email. Commercial publishers generally show little enthusiasm for publishing family histories, but I was hopeful of garnering some interest, as the Forrester book was more 'Australian history' than 'family history' and had a wide potential market if properly promoted.

Meanwhile, I was already experimenting with preparing a book for publication myself and my Pierssené book, a traditional family history with a very small target market, was printed later that year, with sales reliant on emails to known family members.

Silence reigned at MUP for five months, so I rang them, to discover that my Forrester chapters had been 'lost' in the system. On 4 September 2007 I resubmitted several chapters as requested, and a week later I received the following response:

I managed to rush your sample chapters through to our Associate Publisher, and unfortunately she does not believe that Robert Forrester, First Fleeter is appropriate for our list. Once again I apologise on behalf of Melbourne University Publishing for the delay in response.

No matter that a different person had definitely been interested five months earlier! However I won't try to second-guess that eventual decision by MUP. Maybe I should have waited until the book was absolutely and completely ready, but at this point I certainly began to think that the book would never be published, if this was an example of the process and time spans involved in finding a commercial publisher. I gave up on that idea.

It was discouraging, but at least there was no publishing deadline to meet, which allowed me more time to polish the draft in a way that suited my personal timetable. This is a crucial point for family histories - rushing them into print nearly always leads to problems. Too many readers will find mistakes and quickly label your work as 'unreliable'.

During 2008, as well as finalising the Forrester draft, I self-published another traditional style of family history, From Buryan to Bondi, about the Dennis family from Cornwall. During 2008 I also became aware of that incredible Melbourne-based company BookPOD, where I could deliver my PDF file, have my cover designed, and be sure that the boxes of books would arrive at my front door a matter of days after approval of the page proofs. (BookPOD provides a range of other publishing services too, but these were the ones I needed.)

I set up a website for marketing purposes and directed would-be purchasers to BookPOD's bookstore, where customers could buy my books using their credit card or Paypal. The system yields a much better return for writers than a publisher's royalty provides, because it cuts out the middleman.

The rest is history. The book was launched at the end of January 2009, has been re-printed and continues to find a steady market via my website and word-of-mouth publicity. My readers regularly venture beyond the Forrester book to my two subsequent books about the early history of the Hawkesbury - Paul Bushell, Second Fleeter and Southwark Luck, both printed by BookPOD. Imagine what might have happened to Robert Forrester and his incredible story had the status and marketing power of Melbourne University Press helped sales along.

I now take pride in being part of the new publishing paradigm, despite contending with traditionalists who continue to believe that an editor's opinion is the necessary pre-requisite for judging the worth of a book. This ongoing attitude generates the main downside of self-publishing - the difficulty of selling sufficient copies to libraries to qualify for the CAL and PLR payments which help keep Australian authors in business in our small market place. I still haven't broken through this barrier, so I encourage all my readers to ask their local library to order a copy of Robert Forrester, First Fleeter. Ongoing feedback proves that it's a good story, of appeal to a general reader.