Aboriginal People and Australian Football

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Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere

Roy Hay

ISBN: 9781527526488

Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK, 2025. Hardback, A5, 315 pages, illustrated. RRP £64.99. Australia $99.00.

Available 19 February 2025

(Click on the picture above to enlarge it so that it is easier to read.)

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century

If you log in to the Cambridge Scholars website and click on the View Extract tab you will get the Introduction and the first 20 pages of the book which will give you a good flavour of the contents.

CSP has announced that Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century was its book of the month for July.

An eBook is also be available.

The paperback edition will be available in Australia shortly.

There is an excellent review of the book by Gideon Haigh in The Australian, 20 April 2025, Review, p. 20. The title of the review is apposite Field Reports Yield Seeds. A link to the review is: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/field-reports-yield-seeds/news-story/fa904f4d5a5b46055516de882e376129

Several other excellent reviews have followed and there are two extended podcast discussions that may be of interest.

Bernard Whimpress, Newtown Review of Books, 23 May 2025,

http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/roy-hay-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century-they-did-not-come-from-nowhere-reviewed-by-bernard-whimpress/

Colin Ritchie, Almanac Book Review, 24 July 2025, http://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-book-review-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century-they-did-not-come-from-nowhere-by-roy-hay/#comment-1107891

Cam Ward, ‘Footbrawl over state of origin story: Academic rejects footy’s indigenous start’, Geelong Advertiser, 7 June 2025, pp. 28–9.

Steven Carroll in the Non-Fiction Review page of Spectrum in the Age, 1 June 2025, p. 22.

Chalpat Sonti, ‘Book looks back on local sporting legends’, Portland Observer, 31 May 2025, p. 10.

Tony Ward, Sporting Traditions, vol. 36 no. 1, pp. 77–9.

Trevor Ruddell, The Yorker, Issue 68, Autumn 2025, pp. 30–1.

Podcasts

Roy Hay with Tony Collins, Rugby Reloaded. 62 Race, racism and the origins of Aussie Rules

http://soundcloud.com/user-523674328/62-race-racism-and-the-origins-of-aussie-rules/s-brosH