Much is speculative - as Karskens explains, there is too little evidence to be otherwise - but where other authors have retreated because of the fear that they would be seen to be speaking I for i Aboriginal people, Karskens has taken up the challenge. People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia: By Grace Karskens. Karskens refuses to accept the assumption so widely made that Indigenous and settler cultures were incompatible and so displacement of Indigenous life was rapid and complete. [Extracted from the article]