Dr Keith Vincent Smith is an Australian writer, historian and journalist. He has become a notable specialist on early Sydney and

indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

of the Sydney area, including the lives of the Eora peoples,

Bungaree Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Aboriginal Australian from the Guringai people of the Broken Bay north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aborig ...

, and

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong ser ...

Early life

Keith Vincent Smith was born in Ku-ring-gai territory near the lagoon at

Dee Why Dee Why is a coastal suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of Northern Be ...

, north of Sydney. He grew up on Dee Why Headland within sight of the Barranjoey Lighthouse at the edge of Broken Bay.

Journalism

As a journalist, Keith Smith worked on the Sydney Morning Herald and

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

and was a correspondent for Australian Associated Press in London, Saigon and Sydney. He was a correspondent covering the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

Interest in pre-invasion Sydney

As a mature student, studying progressively for first, masters, and doctorate degrees at Macquarie University, Smith developed a strong interest in early colonial Sydney and the inhabitants of the area before British

colonisation Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

Publications

As author: Sydney City, Smith's Guides, (1988) King

: A Sydney Aborigine meets the great South Pacific Explorers, 1799–1830, Kangaroo Press, (1992)

: The coming in of the Eora, Sydney Cove 1788–1792, Kangaroo Press/Simon & Schuster, (2001) Wallumedegal: An Aboriginal history of Ryde, City of Ryde, (2005) MARI NAWI: Aboriginal Odysseys, Rosenberg, (2010) As contributor: Governor Phillip and a man named Bennelong, Australian Heritage, Volume 1, (2005) Bennelong, Ambassador of the Eora, Australian Heritage, Volume 2, (2006) Bennelong among his people, Aboriginal History, Vol. 33, ANU Press, (2009) The many faces of Bungaree, in Bungaree The First Australian, Mosman Art Gallery, (2013) 15 biographical entries at

The Dictionary of Sydney The Dictionary of Sydney is a digital humanities project to produce an online, expert-written encyclopedia of all aspects of the history of Sydney. Description The Dictionary is a partnership between the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney, ...

, including on

and

Pemulwuy Pemulwuy (also rendered as Pimbloy, Pemulvoy, Pemulwoy, Pemulwy or Pemulwye, or sometimes by contemporary Europeans as Bimblewove, Bumbleway or Bembulwoyan) (c. 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, born around 1750 in t ...

TV series

As senior researcher: Episode 1, First Australians,

Blackfella Films Blackfella Films is a Sydney-based documentary and narrative production company, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces distinctive Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a particular focus on ...

, dir.

Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films ''Radiance'' (1998), ''One Night the Moon'' (2001), ''Bran Nue Dae'' (2010), and ''Jasper Jones'' (2017). Perkins is an ...

, originally broadcast on SBS in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Keith Vincent Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Sydney