ABSTRACT
In September 1899, an article in London’s The Strand Magazine described the landing in Antarctica of the British Antarctic Expedition the previous February. Lynnette Russell’s study of the role of indigenous people as sealers and whalers in the Southern Ocean, and Brigid Hains’ work drawing parallels between the Australian outback colonial processes and Antarctic exploration are partial exceptions to this general rule. The new Australian Antarctic icebreaker, set to replace the Aurora Australis in 2020, is named Nuyina, the palawa kani name for the southern lights, in acknowledgement of ‘the interwoven history of Aboriginal people and the great southern land – Antarctica’. The chapter identifies several of the most important ways in which indigeneity and Antarctic history intersected in the Heroic Era. At its most explicit and empirical, indigeneity was present in the form of personnel on two, or possibly three, Heroic Era expeditions.
