Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP)

Australian Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Maori and Pacific Islander people are featured in a number of collections and documents in the M Series.

The perspective is European, reflecting the authors’ views or those of the historical period, but which may not be considered appropriate today. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in a historical context.

These perspectives include European explorers, government officials, settlers, missionaries, scientists and anthropologists.

Major collections include:

• records of the Aborigines Protection Society founded in 1837 which took a strong interest in Indigenous affairs in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, before amalgamating with the Anti-Slavery Society in 1909
• papers of scientists including anthropologist Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, who wrote extensively on Australian Aborigines
• papers of naturalist James Backhouse and his reports to Australian Governors on Aboriginal Missions in NSW and Tasmania (Flinders Island)
• correspondence of Sir John Herschel on Tasmanian Aborigines and the preservation and identification of Aboriginal dialects.

Wordlists of Indigenous words with English translations can be found in several collections, most notably in the School of Oriental and African Studies, featuring vocabularies compiled by Sir Joseph Banks (Series MS 12153. Sir Joseph Banks. Vocabularies of the languages of Tahiti, Prince's Island, Sulu, Samarang, New Holland, New Zealand and Savu, c. 1769-1780) and William Dawes (Series MS 41645. Notebooks of William Dawes, 1790 - 1793).

Records of Missionary Societies and individual missionaries also contain significant Indigenous content.

Significant Collections

• Aborigines Protection Society [M2426 - M2435]
• Collections held by the School of Oriental and African Studies [M681-M686]
• Collections of Royal Commonwealth Society – Reports of James Backhouse [M1690-M1697, M1698-M1703] 
• Collections of the Royal Society – Sir John Herschel Correspondence [M1927-M1940] 
• Collections of the Royal Irish Academy – Madden Papers [M945 - M946] 
• Collections held by the Rhodes House Library – Papers of Sir Thomas F. Buxton [M2119 - M2122] 
• Paintings of the British Museum, Department of Ethnography [M424] 
• Papers of Captain Charles Sturt – Vocabulary of Murray River Tribes, South Australia [M403] 
• Papers of Daniel Southwell [M1538] 
• Papers of James Whitelaw Craig [M978] 
• Papers of Bishop Mathew Blagden Hale [M381] 
• Papers of Sir Richard Owen [M2271-M2288] 
• Papers of Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer [M2422 - M2425]