Our Sunburnt Country – Land Of The Dreamtime

One of the pleasures of blog writing is ‘meeting’ people I would otherwise have never ‘met’. I particularly love when readers email me and we end up striking up a friendship as Sherelle, a regular commenter and emailer from Queensland and I have. When Sherelle emailed me with a request for “ideas for complementary activities/worksheets to go with Our Sunburnt Country – Arthur Baillie,” I was keen to assist and offered to organise a booklist of complementary picture/chapter books. Our Sunburnt Country is one of our favourite core books of Australian history, it covers Australian History from pre-European contact through till the end of World War 2(see pg 7). I have chosen a selection of recommended picture and chapter books for each chapter and have also included books about the history of the Catholic Church in Australia where possible as Sherelle is Catholic, target age for the picture/chapter books is 11-6 years.

 

The first chapter of Our Sunburnt Country is ‘The Land of the Dreamtime,’ focusing on pre-European contact. When selecting books for this chapter I chose to not include any books focusing on dreamtime stories as they are easier to source. Too, as dreamtime stories vary around Australia I thought it best for readers to source stories from their own local nation/s, check ABCs of Aboriginal Picture Book authors to assist in finding dreamtime books from your own locality. Instead I’ve searched for books highlighting the peoples and their culture.

On the main I’ve tried to find in print or recently in print books, though some are out of print (OOP)

 

PICTURE BOOKS

Hands down our favourite author for picture books focused on pre-European contact is Percy Trezise from Far North Queensland. All of Percy Trezise’ books are brilliant and our personal favourites are the ‘Journey of the Great Lake’ series. The series is set around Cape York and follows the adventures of three young children who are blown away from their family on a raft and have to journey back home through many tribal lands. In some lands they encounter help, in other lands danger. I’ve been unable to ascertain as to whether the series was finished before the author’s death in 2005.

 

Home of the Kadimakara People – Percy Trezise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow Dog Dingo – Barbara Ker Wilson (OOP)

A cyclone devastates an ‘island’ and it’s food supply, the people set out with their ‘dogs’ in search of a new land, arriving in Australia. A possible story of how the First People’s came to Australia.

 

 

You and Me Murrawee – Kerri Hashmi

We glimpse through the eyes of a young girl camping on the river with her family, how life would have been two hundred years ago. Written in poetry form, ‘We walk this same brown earth – you and me, Murrawee …’

 

Haven’t Read – Possibles

If you do source these please let me know what you think.

Djomi Dream Child? – Christopher Fry

Djomi Dream Child is the folk tale story of a little aboriginal spirit child whose grandfather dreams of an island where she can find her real life parents. So she places herself on a giant coneshell and floats downstream towards the coast of Maningrida, past the sacred Dreaming waterhole called Djomi. It is in this sacred place that her destiny lays, and where all her dreams would become reality. 

 

 

Eagles Nest – Warlawurru Manngutjarra & June Walkutjukurr Richards

A man is out hunting with his two wives and his brother. They find an eagle’s nest and he climbs up to get the eagle babies. His brother runs off with the wives, leaving him stranded in a tree.

 

 

The Dream – Beryl Harp
A dream sends young Badja and Laladari on a quest to find Bami. Climb on the great misty wings of the Wind Man and find out where this dream journey takes them.

 

 

 

Kupi-kupi and the Girl – Daphne Punytjina Burton

A  young girl who spends her time chasing willy-willies. One day, the Kupi-Kupi spirits her away to a waterhole, where she is guarded by a giant watersnake. Her bold rescue by a witchdoctor returns her to her family.

 

 

 

Kuiyku Mabaigal Waii and Sobai – Aidan Laza

A man can’t be recognised as a warrior until he survives a battle with a native enemy.

 

 

 

The Mark of the Wagarl – Lorna Little
The story of how a little boy dared to question the wisdom of his elders and why he received the Sacred Water Snake for his totem.

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CHAPTER BOOKS

There are other excellent Indigenous chapter books I could have shared with this chapter as many feature traditional Aboriginal life. I’ve been in a quandary as whether to group all the Indigenous chapter books as a collective or to sprinkle them throughout the ‘chapters’ as they occur chronologically, I’ve decided on the later.

Haven’t Read – Possibles

Suggest you pre-read, if you do source please let me know what you think.

Shipwrecks, Sailors & 60000 Years: Pre-1788 – Jackie French

In 1493 the Pope gave Portugal the half of the world that included eastern Australia. By 1770 the Dutch had claimed the western, northern and southern coastlines of the continent-and Cook claimed the east coast for the British in 1770. But unlike the Europeans who claimed New Holland as their own, many nations of Indigenous people had already been living there for tens of thousands of years …

 

 

First Voyage – Alan Baillie
Before the pyramids are built, before the Ice Age comes and goes, and before Neanderthals become extinct, the Yam tribe live in peace on Bird Island. But the Crocodile tribe have other ideas …The ferocious Crocodile warriors have already killed Bent Beak’s pa, and now they seem determined to take out his whole tribe. The only way to survive is to flee the island. But where will they go? As the Yam tribe brave the perils of the sea, will they survive the voyage into the unknown, and what awaits them just over the horizon?

 

Dingo: the Dog who Conquered a Continent – Jackie French

This tells the story of how a young boy and a dog from an island to the north of Australia get blown off course while in a canoe and end up in northern Australia where they learn to survive in this strange new land.  The story is told in alternate chapters from the point of view of the boy, Loa and of the Dog.

 

Walking the Boundaries – Jackie French
Martin lives in the city with his mum. He’s come to walk the boundaries of the farm that’s been in his family for generations. Up in the gorge Martin meets Meg from almost a century ago and Wullamudulla from thousands of years in the past. Despite their differences they discover that they’re all on the same journey …and that walking the boundaries means more than following lines on a map.

 

 

 

Children of the Dark People – Frank Davy Davidson (OOP)

I’ve seen recommended as a book about traditional indigenous life before pre-European contact.

 

 

 

Related Posts:

3 Indigenous Children’s Books for Anzac Day

ABCs of Aboriginal Picture Book Authors