This edition’s Digital Pick is the winner of the 2022 NSW Premier’s History Prize in Digital History, the podcast series from Impact Studios, The Last Outlaws.

This trilogy series details the lives and circumstances of Australia’s last bushrangers, Jimmy and Joe Governor, who were declared outlaws and wanted dead or alive. The story itself is not a traditional true crime drama. The Last Outlaws is an intimate portrait of two Aboriginal men, as well as an exploration of the society that would become a Federated Australia and the painful issue of stolen ancestral remains.

Crucial to the story is Aunty Loretta Parsley, the great-granddaughter of Jimmy Governor and the Governor family historian. Chief Investigator and UTS Law Professor Katherine Biber interviews Aunty Loretta with great sensitivity and care, drawing out details of Jimmy’s life, family and relationships not found in the official historical record. It is from these conversations that The Last Outlaws shines, where the focus moves between intimate and personal family history and the broader historical forces of Australian society at the time. In this regard, The Last Outlaws sets a very high standard by covering discussions about Australia’s Federation in 1901, the proliferation of racial science and the repatriation of Indigenous remains.

The Last Outlaws is, at times, tragic and harrowing but also a tender and human experience. Ultimately, as the project reminds us, repatriation is a story about Indigenous achievement and success.

Listen to the podcast at https://thelastoutlaws.com.au/

Written by RAHS Volunteer Maximilian Reid