This book addresses the gap in our historical knowledge about the roles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers have played in Australia's history of school education. To date, there are few references to schooling in histories of Indigenous Australians, and Australian histories of Indigenous education and teacher education omit Indigenous teachers until systemic initiatives were introduced to recruit and qualify them in the 1970s. This book reinstates and honours Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who worked as school teachers from invasion to contemporary state school systems.

The book is structured chronologically to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers lives and work in relation to settler colonial policies of segregation and protection, assimilation and self-determination; and education policy and practice. The chapters span the late nineteenth century to contemporary times and show the systemic challenges Indigenous people faced in becoming qualified teachers and joining the profession. Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers from different geographic regions, communities and historical periods foreground their agency including their political activism and take account of localised cultural and education contexts.

This insightful book is recommended for upper-level undergraduates and academics in Indigenous education, history of education, teacher education and teachers work. It will also appeal to readers with a general interest in Australian Indigenous history.

Kay Whitehead is a historian of education whose research focus has been teachers’ lives and work for more than three decades. She has published prolifically on Australian, Canadian and British teachers from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.