AUTHOR IN CONVERSATION | Stephen Gapps, 'Uprising'
About
Cost: Free
Who: All ages
Where: Museum of the Riverina - Botanic Gardens Site, 127 Lord Baden Powell Drive, Turvey Park
Tickets: Here
Join us for a special event featuring historian Stephen Gapps in-conversation with Museum of the Riverina Curator Sam Leah about Stephens latest book Uprising.
Uprising tells the story of the Second Wiradyuri War of Resistance (1838-1841), which was conducted across a huge area of the Murray-Darling river system and numerous First Nations' lands, in defence of River Country.
Following the conversation audience members will be invited to participate in a Q&A session. Book sales, signing and light refreshments will also be available. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear new perspectives and join the conversation
‘Stephen Gapps’ work is a significant contribution to truth-telling in Australian history.’ – Dr. Anita Heiss
This event is presented by the Museum of the Riverina in partnership with the Wagga Wagga City Library.
Author Biography
Stephen Gapps is an historian working to bring the Australian Frontier Wars into broader public recognition. He is currently employed as an Historian at Artefact Heritage, works as a consultant historian and is an Adjunct Lecturer at Charles Sturt University.
In 2011 Stephen won the NSW Premier's History Award for Regional and Community History with his book Cabrogal to Fairfield: A history of a multicultural city. In 2017 he was awarded the NSW State Library Merewether Fellowship during which he conducted research for The Sydney Wars – Conflict in the early colony 1788-1817. This book won the Les Carlyon Award for the writing of military history in 2019.
In 2021 he published Gudyarra: The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance, the Bathurst War 1822-1824, shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards. He is currently co-editing and contributing to the forthcoming (2025) publication The Australian Wars based on the highly successful documentary series.
Book Description
The award-winning author of The Sydney Wars reveals the breadth of frontier resistance warfare.
The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance ended in 1824 with a series of massacres conducted by settlers in the Bathurst region. From the 1830s, colonists began occupying more and more Aboriginal land across western New South Wales and stocking it with sheep and cattle. By 1838, a dramatic fightback began across the entire frontier of the colony. What has been called the Second Wiradyuri War of Resistance, from 1839 to 1841, was, in fact, part of a vast arc of conflict from present-day northern Victoria through to southeast Queensland. At the time, it was seen by many contemporaries as a concerted and coordinated ‘uprising’.
In Uprising, Stephen Gapps reveals the incredible story of this extensive frontier resistance warfare for the first time – a series of wars that were conducted along a huge area of the Murray-Darling river system, across many First Nations’ lands, in a concerted defence of River Country.
