Local and place-based, em PRESS seeks to connect people to our own landscapes, rather than those elsewhere. To present Indigenous as well as our newcomer settler perspectives in pursuit of a wider and deeper vision of Australia's 65,000 year old cultural heritage. To find ways we can live more sustainably – as our Indigenous forebears once did, and in some places, still strive to do.
em PRESS has produced regional histories, guidebooks and essays on the interplay between the natural landscape and the cultural heritage of the central Victorian goldfields and the Grampians/Gariwerd ranges.
Writer and emPRESS principal, Gib Wettenhall, has collaborated extensively with First Nations people in south-west and central Victoria, as well as north-east Arnhem Land in order to bring their stories from the margins into the mainstream.
Two award winning em PRESS books are highlighted IN PRINT.
A Second Edition of one of these, The People of Budj Bim, was published in June 2022. Two new chapters were added to bring the Gunditjmara's side of the story up-to-date. Go to the SHOP to buy – still only $25.
A high quality gloss version of a Gunditjmara family story Daughter of Two Worlds is back on sale. Exclusively in the SHOP.
Tanya Loos' six season nature journal and wall calendar for the Wombat Forest is now discounted by 30% – check REVIEW.
Refer to the OUT OF PRINT page for other publications and check out REVIEWS for in-depth appraisal. Books can be purchased by credit card via the SHOP ONLINE or you could visit one of the listed BOOKSHOPS selling em PRESS stock.
A menu of ESSAYS by Gib Wettenhall explores overlooked aspects of treegrowing and inconvenient Indigenous issues.
em PRESS has produced regional histories, guidebooks and essays on the interplay between the natural landscape and the cultural heritage of the central Victorian goldfields and the Grampians/Gariwerd ranges.
Writer and emPRESS principal, Gib Wettenhall, has collaborated extensively with First Nations people in south-west and central Victoria, as well as north-east Arnhem Land in order to bring their stories from the margins into the mainstream.
Two award winning em PRESS books are highlighted IN PRINT.
A Second Edition of one of these, The People of Budj Bim, was published in June 2022. Two new chapters were added to bring the Gunditjmara's side of the story up-to-date. Go to the SHOP to buy – still only $25.
A high quality gloss version of a Gunditjmara family story Daughter of Two Worlds is back on sale. Exclusively in the SHOP.
Tanya Loos' six season nature journal and wall calendar for the Wombat Forest is now discounted by 30% – check REVIEW.
Refer to the OUT OF PRINT page for other publications and check out REVIEWS for in-depth appraisal. Books can be purchased by credit card via the SHOP ONLINE or you could visit one of the listed BOOKSHOPS selling em PRESS stock.
A menu of ESSAYS by Gib Wettenhall explores overlooked aspects of treegrowing and inconvenient Indigenous issues.
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In 2019, the Budj Bim landscape in south-west Victoria gained UNESCO World Heritage listing as Australia's first Indigenous cultural landscape after 17 years of persistent negotiation. Originally written in collaboration with the Gunditjmara in 2010, the award-winning The People of Budj Bim has been revised and updated in 2022 with two new chapters added on the World Heritage listing process and how the Gunditjmara are stepping up to the challenges they face. The 2nd edition is out now. To order, go to the SHOP. See the Blog for a gallery of images of the award winning interpretive signage now in place across the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.
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Back on sale – a high quality reprint on gloss paper with improved photo contrast of Daughter of Two Worlds by Gunditjmara descendant Dawn Lees in the SHOP now. One of the most comprehensive photographic records of any Victorian Indigenous family and an extraordinary historic record. John Batman's storekeeper Willian Willoughby, went bush in 1841, met a Gunditmara woman Susannah and lived with her in the lava caves of Budj Bim long enough for Susannah to bear two children. Susannah and her children were to witness one of the last massacres at Lake Condah. Dawn was a great-granddaughter of Susannah and William.
Exclusive to the emPRESS SHOP |
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In June 2021, em PRESS published another walks and bike rides guide, this time focusing on short, half day circuits in the Daylesford region. The Central Victorian Highlands Walk and Ride Circuits was produced for the Great Dividing Trail Association and can be bought online in the SHOP for $24.99. You can also read a REVIEW
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A recent essay by Gib puts the case for Indigenous cultural burning to be taken up by landowner's groups as an alternative environmental approach to large scale 'hazard' reduction burning. A short version is featured in the winter 2020 edition of the Victorian Landcare magazine – click here.
Others in the series include:- Raising a green wood shed pleas for a return to lost crafts and localism; the enigma of Aboriginal standing stones is explored along with their appropriation by a bunch of Celts; A brief history of the slaughter of trees demonstrates how we don't seem to learn our environmental lessons; and Reimagining and reinventing our culture delves into aspects of animism and what it might have to teach us. |
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A 3rd reprint of The People of Gariwerd is now available at the Brambuk National Park shop in Halls Gap as well as via online – purchase here Still the only accessible Indigenous history of the Gariwerd/ Grampians ranges, the reprint was undertaken in association with the Brambuk National Park & Cultural Centre. Illustrated throughout, it is ideal for students and visitors to the ranges.
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We've found another box of My Father's Son, Ric Throssel's award-winning autobiography of his struggles to follow in his famous parents' footsteps and clear his name as a spy. His poet and novelist daughter Karen recently entwined poetry and prose to explore three generations of her family and Ric's battle with ASIO in The Crime of Not Knowing Your Crime.
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Recently deceased, John Landy AC, the running legend and former Governor of Victoria, provided the Foreword for em PRESS's large format, high quality hardback Gariwerd: Reflecting on the Grampians. Still relevant, still beautiful, the book has 100 evocative full page images of the Gariwerd/Grampians ranges by Alison Pouliot (now of fungi fame) and five challenging essays by Gib Wettenhall – still available for purchase in the SHOP
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Author and musician Craig Horne has launched his new book Line of Blood, pulling apart the legend of his famous explorer and anthropologist cousin, Alfred Howitt. It turns out he was a flawed, extremely racist hero – even for those days. Em PRESS published an early pair of novels by Craig on the rise and fall of a rock star – Bureaucracy Blues and Alpha Jerk. They're still available to buy for a song in the SHOP Craig also co-wrote with Gib their first published work together in 1988, a guidebook titled Runs Around Melbourne.
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