First Knowledges: The Collection brings together all ten volumes of Thames & Hudson Australia's bestselling series in a single collectable box set, uniting over 65,000 years of Indigenous knowledge across songlines, design, astronomy, law, health, ceremony, and politics.
About This Book
This box set is the definitive edition of one of Australian publishing's most significant series — a sustained, collaborative project placing Indigenous knowledge systems in direct conversation with contemporary scholarship. Each of the ten volumes pairs Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers, ensuring the knowledge shared is contextualised, contested, and alive to the present. Curated by Margo Ngawa Neale, former senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia, the series moves across country, sky, ceremony, governance, and the body. The box set is housed in a case featuring the artwork Nganampa Ngura (Our Country) by Alec Baker and Kunmanara (Peter) Mungkuri — itself a statement about whose knowledge grounds this collection.
Key Features
- Curated by Margo Ngawa Neale, former senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia
- Ten volumes: Songlines (Kelly & Neale), Design (Page & Memmott), Country (Gammage & Pascoe), Astronomy (Noon & De Napoli), Plants (Cumpston, Fletcher & Head), Law (Langton & Corn), Innovation (McNiven & Russell), Health (Andrews, Eades & Stanley), Ceremony (Enoch & Curran), Politics (Graham & Brigg)
- Box set features artwork Nganampa Ngura (Our Country) by Alec Baker and Kunmanara (Peter) Mungkuri
- Published by Thames & Hudson Australia, 2026
What You'll Discover
- How Indigenous knowledge systems — spanning songlines, land management, and ceremony — remain active, adaptive frameworks rather than historical artefacts
- The collaborative methodology underpinning each volume, in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors work together to negotiate meaning across two very different epistemological traditions
- The breadth of First Nations expertise across disciplines: from archaeoastronomy and plant science to constitutional law and political philosophy
- How ten discrete books, read together, build a cumulative argument for the relevance of Indigenous knowledge to Australia's most pressing present and future challenges
About the Author
The series was curated by Margo Ngawa Neale, former senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia. Each volume is co-authored by an Indigenous and a non-Indigenous writer; contributors across the series include Marcia Langton, Bruce Pascoe, Bill Gammage, Karlie Noon, Wesley Enoch, and Mary Graham, among others.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: [Details available upon request]
- Dimensions: 20.8 x 17.2 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781760766009
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
- Publication Date: 2026
Perfect For: Architects, designers, and academics seeking a foundational library of Indigenous Australian knowledge; educators building decolonised curricula; serious readers wanting the complete First Knowledges series in a single, collectible edition.