Towards a New England History

In this, the first of several posts, I want to start looking at the issues involved in writing a decent first history of New England. Not the Northern Tablelands, but the fuller new state New England. This is not an easy task simply because of the absence of a formal political entity. Here Scottish history is instructive.

While born in Australia, my grandfather was a proud Scot. So over the years I received as presents many books on Scottish history. I found these easy to follow so long as Scotland existed as a unit in its own right, much harder when it became simply a region of England or the UK. The problem? How do you write about something that does not exist!

In thinking this challenge through, I think that the starting point has to be the original aboriginal inhabitants. New England is a European construct. The aboriginal nations (language groups) obviously did not think of New England. However, they did have to respond to the European intrusion.

So what was aboriginal New England like? How did it evolve in the thousands of years prior to the European invasion? Here we have to paint a picture of the changing interaction between people and a changing landscape, because the landscape itself was not static, changing in long waves with geological and climatic change, as well as shorter waves under the impact of the aborigines themselves.

Then we have the immediate impact of the Europeans and the nature of the aboriginal response. From this point, the aborigines become a sub-story, but one that needs to be written as an important thread in the New England experience.

On New England

This blog is dedicated to the history, culture and activities of the New England region of Australia.

In many ways New England does not exist. In the words of the Australian poet A D Hope, New England is an idea in the heart and mind.

In formal terms, the term New England is used to describe the Northern Tablelands of New Southw Wales. Here locals talk of "the New England." But the term is also used, and this is the way I use the term, to describe a much broader region that has maintained a struggle for self government - the right to govern itself within the Australian federation - since the middle of the 19th century.

We have come close at times, but success still eludes us. The forces of the status quo are very strong. So I thought that a site that focuses just on New England might provide another voice.