Mari Nawi - 9781921719004

The first sailing ships that entered the world of the Indigenous people of Botany Bay and Port Jackson caused fear and wonder. They thought they were giant birds, monsters or floating islands and that the figures climbing the masts were devils or possums.

Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys reveals the significant role Aboriginal men, and some women, played in Australia's early maritime history. Its focus is the Indigenous people who sailed on English ships through Port Jackson to destinations throughout the world in the period 1790-1850.

Theirs was a canoe culture and they called the foreign ships mari nawi, meaning `large canoes'. With remarkable resilience, they became guides, go-betweens, boatmen, sailors, sealers, steersmen, whalers, pilots and trackers, valued for their skills and knowledge, while some were exiled as Aboriginal `convicts'.

Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys is illustrated with rarely seen portraits, landscapes and ship images by English, French and Russian artists and is based on previously unpublished sources, including ships' musters, logs, journals, despatches and shipping records.