Related Guides
Background Sources
- Kel Richards' Dictionary of Australian Phrase and Fable Covering many unique—and sometimes peculiar—Australian slang phrases and words, this lighthearted guide shares the etymological history of almost 1,000 items from Australian-English lingo. The book includes how “bloody” became an all-purpose swear word, why “bludger” means a lazy person, the origin of “stone the crows,” and what exactly defines “dangle the dunlops,” “possum knockers,” and “molly-dooker,” among other colorful words and phrases. Entertaining and informative, this offbeat book will expand knowledge and ensure laughs.
- The Oxford Companion to Australian History The Oxford Companion to Australian History draws on the latest scholarship and covers people, institutions, and events that have shaped Australian society, politics and culture. There are entries on politicians, colonisers, visionaries, newspaper barons, industrialists, explorers, writers, artists, and scientists. There are numerous extended essays on key facets of the nation's life.
- Ethnic groups of South Asia and the Pacific : an encyclopedia This comprehensive guide to the Pacific and South Asia provides detailed and enlightening information about the many ethnic groups of this increasingly important region of the world. It provides clear, detailed, and up-to-date information on each major group in South Asian and Pacific Island countries, including India, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, Australia, Tonga, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands.
- Berg encyclopedia of world dress and fashion. Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands Collectively, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand represent a varied and culturally complex region. It is home to peoples leading time-honored ways of life, those gradually accepting cultural changes and those inhabiting industrialized society and engaging with all the trappings of the modern world. The influence of colonialism, trade, Aboriginal and Pacific Islander heritage, and the significance of the environment on bodily adornment are some of topics thoroughly addressed in this volume, which provides general overviews of the dress practices of the region's various peoples. Snapshots focus on specialist topics relating to traditional dress as well as recent phenomena, such as the performance fashions of pop star and style icon Kylie Minogue. Throughout, articles are supported by a significant number of previously unpublished photographs. Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands will be of enduring value to anyone curious to learn more about dress in this fascinating region.
- Countries and their Cultures Presents the cultural similarities within a country that set it apart from others by examining over 200 countries to document the myriad ways in which culture defines and separates the nations of the world as much as geographical borders do. Surveys each country's shared values, behaviors and cultural variations from foods and rituals to pastimes and arts, using a standard entry format for easy comparison.
- Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window Typically known as "The Grove" after its most recent print version of 2001, its encyclopedic online content on people, works, terminology and sources, has been expanded to include both legacy and more recent publications of Grove Opera (1992), the Grove Jazz 2nd ed (2002), the AmeriGrove, and Grove Instruments. Notated music examples are embedded. Articles are selectively updated or added three times annually.
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window Grove Art Online is an encyclopedia covering both Western and non-Western art and all aspects of visual culture. Articles include bibliographies and searchable images. As part of Oxford Art Online, keywords also are simultaneously searched in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art.
- Handbook of Australian Languages This handbook makes available short grammatical sketches of Australian languages. Each grammar is written in a standard format, following guidelines provided by the editors, and includes a sample text and vocabulary text. In the introduction the editors discuss some of the recurrent features of languages across the continent, together with grammars of Guugu Yimidhirr by John Haviland; Pitta-Pitta by Barry J. Blake; Gumbaynggir by Diana Eades; and Yaygir by Terry Crowley.
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature This book introduces in a lively and succinct way the major writers, literary movements, styles and genres that, at the beginning of a new century, are seen as constituting the field of 'Australian literature'. The book consciously takes a perspective that sees literary works not as aesthetic objects created in isolation by unique individuals, but as cultural products influenced and constrained by the social, political and economic circumstances of their times, as well as by geographical and environmental factors. It covers indigenous texts, colonial writing and reading, poetry, fiction and theatre throughout two centuries, biography and autobiography, and literary criticism in Australia. Other features of the companion are a chronology listing significant historical and literary events, and suggestions for further reading.
- Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia: Asia and Oceania Filled with succinct, yet highly informative entries, the four-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia covers all of the planet's nation-states, as well as various tribes and marginalized peoples.
- Australian Dictionary of Biography The Australian Dictionary of Biography is Australia's pre-eminent dictionary of national biography. In it you will find concise, informative and fascinating descriptions of the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history.
- Australian Dress Register The Australian Dress Register is a collaborative, online project about dress with Australian provenance. This includes men's, women's and children's clothing ranging from the special occasion to the everyday.
- The Companion to Tasmanian History The Companion to Tasmanian History is a comprehensive volume providing information about every important aspect of Tasmania’s history, covering all periods and all places.
- Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on leading films as well as many directors, writers, actors and producers. It also covers early pioneers, film companies, genres and government bodies.
- A Companion to Australian Cinema The first comprehensive volume of original essays on Australian screen culture in the twenty-first century. A Companion to Australian Cinema is an anthology of original essays by new and established authors on the contemporary state and future directions of a well-established national cinema. A timely intervention that challenges and expands the idea of cinema, this book brings into sharp focus those facets of Australian cinema that have endured, evolved and emerged in the twenty-first century.
- The A to Z of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia This engaging reference examines the history of, the search for, and the discovery of Australia, taking full account of the evidence for and the speculation surrounding possible earlier contacts by the Ancient Egyptians, Arabs, and Chinese seamen.
