One Blood is really the best overall account of Christian mission engagement with Indingeous Australians and thanks to Concilia it has been republished as an eBook. It’s a huge tome and at times, a fairly ‘dry’ account but also deeply moving through an understated power.

This powerful book is an account of Nathanael Pepper, an early Aboriginal Christian from north western Victoria but its so much more than this. Its really an in depth exploration of the understandings, both historical and contemporary of Christian conversion and cultural understandings amongst Indigenous peoples. Highly recommended.

Peter (based in Melbourne) was very involved with the Uniting Church for many years and helped to establish the Uniting Aboriginal and islander Christian Congress (UAICC) a unique and significant national self governed structure within the Uniting Church. It’s an excellent book with a deep theological apologetic for empathetic partnering with Indigenous peoples. Highly recommended. 

Similar in style and content to Acting in Solidarity.

Gary Presland is an archaeologist and one of Victoria’s authorities on the pre-European landscape of the state. He presents good, basic information about aspects of Indigenous life and the environment of Melbourne pre 1830’s. His is more of an accessible scientific approach that that of a historian, sociologist, anthropologist or theologian.

Richard Broome is considered to be one of the states leading historians and experts on Indigenous history. Excellent if you want a broader understanding of historical, social and political changes involving Aboriginal Victorians over the last 200 years.

Although written a long time ago this is still really the only full account or biography of this incredible man. Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls was a Christian pastor, elder, community leader, politician, state governor and sportsman. This provides invaluable understandings of both the personal and wider issues and forces at work that have shaped Indigenous issues, particularly in Victoria.

Thinking Black tells the story of William Cooper, a largely unknown hero of Aboriginal activism – also a strongly committed Christian and resident of Footscray – and the Australian Aborigines League and their campaign for Aboriginal people's rights. Through petitions to government, letters to other campaigners and organisations, and entreaties to friends and well-wishers, Thinking Black reveals their passionate struggle against dispossession and displacement, the denial of rights, and their fight to be citizens in their own country. 

An Age book of the Year in 2012, this is a fantastic account of the ‘birth’ of Melbourne and the wider socio-political forces at play through the mid 1800’s. It is powerfully insightful in regards to the impacts on Indigenous Victorians. 

This book is like a self guided tour companion to visit sites of significance to Aboriginal people in and around Melbourne. 

A fascinating and detailed account of the Maloga Mission and Daniel Matthews, and independent Scottish missionary on the Murray River near Echuca in the late 1800’s. What makes this so compelling is the impact and number of Indigenous Christian leaders that have emerged from this Yorta Yorta community (Maloga eventually was absorbed into the better known Cummeroogunga Mission). William Cooper, Sir Doug and Lady Gladys Nicholls, Margaret Tucker, Bill Onus, Jimmy Little, The Sapphires and many others all came from this community and had a significant local and national impact. 

Sympathetic and detailed account of a mission that was considered to have ‘failed’ near the township of Birregurra in Western Victoria. Again, this book provides fascinating insights into not only the issues at the time, but also the resulting influences of Christian and church engagement amongst Aboriginal Australians. 

Though not Christian, this is a brilliant book in regards to shedding light on what many would say is the God given intelligence and sophistication of much of traditional Aboriginal culture.

For centuries, the Bible has been used by colonial powers to undergird their imperial designs--an ironic situation when so much of the Bible was conceived by way of resistance to empires. In this thoughtful book, Mark Brett draws upon his experience of the colonial heritage in Australia to identify a remarkable range of areas where God needs to be decolonized--freed from the bonds of the colonial. 

A challenging but excellent book. Mark is one of the leading academics and theologians at Whitley College, Melbourne. He is an excellent authority on both the old testament and post colonial theological thinking.

This book was released to accompany the excellent SBS series of the same name a number of years ago. An excellent and accessible broad coverage of history and issues from an Indigenous perspective.

A great online (PDF) resource with many perspectives on Indigenous and non-indigenous voices sharing about ways to work and lead together.