Originally titled 'Applicants Historical Report' and prepared as expert evidence in the native title case known as Single Noongar Claim, this book analyses the historiography and associated anthropology of the South-West. Coupled with Noongar oral history, it examines the survival of Noongar tradition, law and custom, proving that many of the most common misconceptions regarding the disappearance of Noongar culture have no basis in fact. Existing histories tend to represent the Noongar people as passive victims of colonisers and governments; it is all to easy to assume that theirs is little more than one of attempted assimilation, separation and state intrusion. Noongars are rarely represented as active survivors - as people who retained their traditional ways and country in the face of politics aimed at eliminating all aspects of their heritage.