We use both ‘Aboriginal people’ and ‘Indigenous people’ to refer to the original inhabitants of this continent. The noun ‘Aborigine’ has fallen out of favour as being overly determinist, and we use the currently preferred adjective ‘Aboriginal’, denoting simply one aspect of a person’s identity. The use of ‘Indigenous’ follows the Australian Government’s recommendation, which calls for capitalising ‘Indigenous’ when it refers to the original inhabitants of Australia but no capital when used in a general sense to refer to the original inhabitants of other countries.1 Where we have reproduced certain historical terms that are now deemed offensive, we have done so in their original context in order to make specific historical arguments. We signify their origin and our distance from them through the use of quotation marks.
Some of the spellings used in this book are historical, although in the present the preferred spellings of living people and current representative organisations are used.
NOTE
1. Australia Parliamentary Council, Drafting direction no. 2.1: English usage, gender-specific and gender-neutral language, grammar, punctuation and spelling, Canberra, 2010, p. 6, viewed 10 March 2012, <www.opc.gov.au/about/drafting_series/DD2.1.pdf>.