Excerpt: ‘One of the more intriguing elements of the research, to me at least,was the imperial frame within which many Australians located themselvesin the first half of the twentieth century. In some ways this research projectbegan with my puzzling over a proposal, made in the late 1920s by theAdelaide-based Aborigines’ Protection League, for a model Aboriginalstate in Arnhem Land that would be governed by Aboriginal peoplelargely according to their own laws and customs’.