By Ian Crawford
We Won the Victory tells the story of contact between the Aboriginal people of the north-west Kimberley coastal region and various intruders upon their land. These include 'Indonesian' fishermen, white explorers, pearlers, pastoralists, beachcombers, missionaries and the military.
At the centre of the book are the Aboriginal stories of those events, but Ian Crawford also draws on written evidence to give context to the events. In both Aboriginal and white accounts, actual events are generally agreed but the causes and motives of whites were interpreted by Aboriginal people in ways quite different to those in the white record.
Often a basic Aboriginal conclusion was that white people were untrustworthy. For the author, understanding why Aborigines formed that view is important if Australians are to move on with the process of reconciliation.
We Won the Victory is a fascinating and engaging work of the history of a part of Australia where there has been contact by the Aboriginal people with many outsiders over the centuries.
There have been many mutually positive contacts, and many negative over that time, and many battles were fought, some lost, some won, but in the end the Aborigines remain, still in control of their land and culture.