Awabakal voices: The life and work of Percy Haslam

The late Percy Haslam, a noted journalist and scholar of Newcastle, had a long, continued and significant association with Aboriginal peoples within the Newcastle and Hunter Valley regions. The language, culture and history of the Awabakal became his obsession and life's work. Haslam died some 25 years ago and dozens of boxes of his papers and work were deposited with the archive section at the Auchmuty Library of the University of Newcastle. In 2001, with funding from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Indigenous Research Development Scheme Grant I set out to not only examine the works of Haslam but also reveal an understanding of the man behind the material. In saying that, I am not attempting a theoretical analysis of Haslam's work here but rather I offer an introductory biographical overview of the man by those that knew him intimately in the hope of stimulating further questions for research. Who was he? Where did he come from? What drove his insatiable interest in Aboriginal culture in particular the Awabakal? Purist and professional academics do tend to denigrate amateur ethnographers - where does this situate Haslam, his work and legacy?