The First Inventors (How People Shaped a Continent)

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