Palmer wins 2024 Ernest Scott Prize

Unmaking Angas Downs: Myth and history on a Central Australian pastoral station (Shannyn Palmer, MUP) has won the 2024 Ernest Scott Prize for History.

Award judges Grace Karskens and Frank Bongiorno said the book ‘explores the histories and mythologies of Angas Downs pastoral station in the Northern Territory from the perspectives of the Aṉangu who lived there’.

‘[Palmer] shows how a regional and truly place-based approach, and how understanding Aṉangu ways of seeing the world, together retell the history of colonisation, illuminating wider, mythologised landscapes and industries, and Aboriginal people’s extraordinary responses to the disruption and dislocation of invasion and pastoralism,’ Karskens and Bongiorno said.

The $13,000 annual prize, administered by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts, is presented to the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand, or to the history of colonisation, based on original research.

Two titles were highly commended by judges: Courting: An intimate history of love and the law (Alecia Simmonds, Black Inc.) and Science and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Tasman World: Popular phrenology in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (Alexandra Roginski, CUP).

The winner and highly commended titles were chosen from 54 entries and a shortlist that also included: The Best Country to Give Birth?: Midwifery, homebirth and the politics of maternity in Aotearoa New Zealand 1970–2022 (Linda Bryder, Auckland University Press); Bennelong & Phillip: A history unravelled (Kate Fullagar, Scribner); and Tiwi Story: Turning history downside up (Mavis Kerinaiua and Dr Laura Rademaker, NewSouth).

Last year’s winners were Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm (Alan Atkinson, NewSouth) and Te Motunui Epa (Rachel Buchanan [Taranaki, Te Ātiawa], Bridget Williams Books).

Category: Awards Local news