James Boyce - Origins

James Boyce in conversation with Pachel Perkins

This fascinating book sets aside the clichés of Australian history and asks us to look again.

What really happened when exiled criminals made a home in an occupied and defended country? How were they changed by this new world? What can the first years of settlement tell us about Australia today?

In Origins, James Boyce brings this formative period to life. The protagonists include convicts, Aboriginal people, soldiers, governors, and the country itself. The picture that emerges will change how you think about Australia's origins.

James Boyce is a multi-award-winning historian. His first book, Van Diemen’s Land, was described by Richard Flanagan as ‘the most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore’. He is also the editor of Inga Clendinnen and the author of Losing Streak, Born Bad, Imperial Mud and 1835, which was The Age’s 2012 Book of the Year.

Rachel Perkins is a proud Arrente and Kalkadoon woman, and one of Australia’s most significant storytellers. She is a writer, director and producer of multiple award-winning television drama, documentaries and feature films. Rachel founded Australia’s premier Indigenous production company, Blackfella Films and has worked with the Australian Film Commission (now Screen Australia), National Indigenous Television (NITV), the ABC & SBS and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.