The First Inventors

The story of how Indigenous knowledge shaped the Australian continent. Based on the acclaimed SBS and Channel 10 television series, The First Inventors takes readers on a journey through 65,000 years of innovation, diplomacy, and design, challenging everything you thought you knew about Australia's deep history.

This is what the history of Australia looks like when Indigenous perspectives are placed at its heart.

For more than 65,000 years, people have shaped this continent through language, song, water, and fire. The First Inventors tells their story―a history of innovation, diplomacy, and design, and a celebration of the survival and resilience of cultural knowledge. It explores how people managed and engineered entire landscapes and orchestrated seascapes through their understanding of the stars, tides, and relationships with animal kin.

Grounded in the concept of Country, The First Inventors offers a transformative way of seeing and relating to the world. It honors ancient ways of knowing while sharing fresh insights from cutting-edge collaborative research, spanning astronomy, navigation, ancient memory systems, archaeology, pottery, and international trade.

Based on the acclaimed SBS and Channel 10 television series, The First Inventors is a story of hope, wonder, and possibility.

Praise for The First Inventors

'A dazzling history that is anchored in the knowledges and practices of the Ancestors. With vivid prose and a wonderful sense of story, The First Inventors offers a different way of relating to the history and future of the continent.' ― Rachel Perkins

'Celebrates how our people shaped the landscape through curiosity, care and invention.' ― Professor Wesley Enoch AM

'An instant classic.' ― Robyn Williams AO

'A big story in every sense of the word.' ― Professor Lynette Russell AM

Billy Griffiths is a writer and historian at Deakin University. He is the bestselling author of Deep Time Dreaming, which has won prizes in literature, archaeology and history, including Book of the Year at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. He lectures in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies and holds a research fellowship with the Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization.

Larissa Behrendt AO is a legal academic, writer, filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate. She is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. She is the author of several novels and non-fiction works, and chair of the Writing Australia Council. She was writer and director of the TV series The First Inventors. 

Sean Ulm is Distinguished Professor of Archaeology at James Cook University and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures. His publications include more than 150 research articles and books on the archaeology of Australia. He directed research partners and developed storylines for the TV series The First Inventors. 
.