John Maynard – September 16 2018

John is of the Worimi people of Port Stephens, New South Wales. He holds a Diploma of Aboriginal Studies, a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD. John has held a post-doctoral fellowship with the Australian Research Council, an Aboriginal History (ANU) Stanner Fellowship and a New South Wales Premier’s Indigenous History Fellowship. He has worked with and within many Aboriginal communities, urban, rural and remote, and has been Deputy Chairperson of Council with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association as well as having held many academic positions at the University of Newcastle, including Professor of Aboriginal Studies. In addition to his academic works, John’s other books include The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe: A History of Aboriginal Involvement with the World Game, a celebration of the largely untold history of Aboriginal players in the game that often provided them with a haven from the prejudice and racism of wider Australian society; The Fight for Liberty and Freedom: The Origins of Australian Aboriginal Activism, about his grandfather, Frederick Maynard, founder of the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) in 1924 and the AAPA’s legacy; and Living with the Locals: Early Europeans’ Experience of Indigenous Life, co-written with his wife and acclaimed historian, Victoria Haskins, which tells the stories of 13 white people, shipwreck survivors, convicts and ex-convicts, who were taken in by Indigenous communities and survived through their generosity.

True Light and Shade: An Aboriginal Perspective of Joseph Lycett’s Art
NLA Publishing, 2014; ISBN 9780642277084
Convict artist Joseph Lycett’s images capture Aboriginal life in intimate detail, a rare record of Aboriginal people within the vicinity of Newcastle and their adaptation to European settlement before their cultural destruction. Twenty images are reproduced in full on double page spreads followed by enlarged details accompanied by text explaining exactly what is happening in each picture: ceremony, hunting, fishing, carrying food, carving up whalemeat, land management and burning, interactions with Europeans, family life, dances, funeral rituals, and punishment. When you return again to examine the full image, you see it in a completely different light. John also includes written records from the time that corroborate Lycett’s views.

Aboriginal Stars of the Turf: Jockeys of Australian Racing History
Aboriginal Studies Press, 2002; ISBN 9780855754518
John Maynard comes from both Aboriginal and racing backgrounds. He knows first hand that the premise that there had been very few Aboriginal riders is far from the truth. Aboriginal Stars of the Turf features John’s father, renowned jockey Merv Maynard, and celebrates the significant and exciting Aboriginal involvement in Australian racing history. Other Aboriginal jockeys highlighted in the book include Norm Rose, Frank Reys, Richard Lawrence ‘Darby’ McCarthy and Leigh-Anne Goodwin, Australia’s first female Aboriginal jockey to ride a winner at a metropolitan track.