Young Dark Emu: A Truer History (HB) by Bruce Pascoe

$24.99 AUD

Category: Non Fiction

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsiderat ion of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived — a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu — A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia’s history pre-European colonisation. ...Show more

Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Bruce Pascoe

$19.99 AUD

Category: History

'Dark Emu injects a profound authenticity into the conversation about how we Australians understand our continent ... [It is] essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what Australia once was, or what it might yet be if we heed the lessons of long and sophisticated human occupation.' Jud ges for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing -- behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources. Bruce's comments on his book compared to Gammage's: " My book is about food production, housing construction and clothing, whereas Gammage was interested in the appearance of the country at contact. [Gammage] doesn't contest hunter gatherer labels either, whereas that is at the centre of my argument." ...Show more

Keeping The Wanjinas Fresh

$35.00 AUD

Category: History

Keeping the Wanjinas Fresh: Sam Woolagoodja and the Enduring Power of Lalai is the story of the people of the Wanjinas and their unbroken living cosmology of Lalai- the Dreaming- manifested most memorably in the dazzling giant Wanjina designed by Donny Woolagoodja for the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics It is also the story of Sam Woolagoodja, who was responsible for repainting the sacred Wanjinas in many of the rock shelters that dot the Kimberley landscape, and was among the first to paint the sacred stories on bark and board for Worrorra children living far from their homelands   ...Show more

Bakir and Bi by Jillian Boyd

$4.99 AUD

Category: Children

Based on a Torres Strait Islander creation story with illustrations by 18-year-old Tori-Jay Mordey. Bakir (rock) and Mar (storm bird) live on a remote island called Egur with their two young children. While fishing on the beach Bakir comes across a very special pelican (Bakirs totem is a pelican) named Bi. A famine occurs, and life on the island is no longer harmonious. One day Bakir and Bi disappear and Mar and the children are forced to make the journey to another island by canoe ...and so begins the adventure. There are supernatural themes, totemic connections and kinship relationships and the island names are imaginary as are the characters. The moral of the story is that everyone has a destiny and a purpose in life. ...Show more

Barddabardda Wodjenangorddee We're Telling All Of You by Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation

$49.99 AUD

Category: History

We Are Coming To See You

$96.00 AUD

Category: Art

Ubby's Underdogs - Return of the Dragons by Brenton E. McKenna

$24.99 AUD

Category: Children | Series: Ubby's Underdogs Ser.

Age range 10+ The long-awaited, final book in the Ubby's Underdogs trilogy. It is the late 1940s and Broome, a small pearling town in the heart of an ancient land, is still recovering from WWII. Ubby, a smart, street-wise Aboriginal girl, is the leader of a small rag-tag gang known as the 'Underdogs.' U bby's Underdogs: Return of the Dragons is storytelling on a remarkable scale. It continues with established characters that have links to other worlds amidst an intricate backdrop of Aboriginal and Chinese mythology. Ubby and her gang of Underdogs cross into the Forbidden Zone on the Broome, Western Australia, coastline in a desperate bid to locate their missing friend Sai Fong who has disappeared without a trace. What they encounter is worse than anything they could ever have imagined - leaving them and the mercenaries who hunt them, trembling in terror. To survive, the Underdogs must call upon the local gangs to unite, solve the mystery of the Dragon Summoner, and make contact with the mysterious Phoenix Dragon to fight the battle of all battles against an evil and unearthly enemy. What is at stake is the future of humanity itself. ...Show more

Australia's First Naturalists: The Importance of Indigenous People to Early Zoological Collectors (PB) by Penny Olsen; Lynette Russell

$44.99 AUD

Category: History

Would Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson have ever crossed the Blue Mountains without the help of the local Aboriginal people? The invaluable role of local guides in this event is rarely recognised. As silent partners, Aboriginal Australians gave Europeans their first views of iconic animals, such as the Ko ala and Superb Lyrebird, and helped to unravel the mystery of the egg-laying mammals: the Echidna and Platypus. Well into the twentieth century, Indigenous people were routinely engaged by collectors, illustrators and others with an interest in Australia's animals. Yet this participation, if admitted at all, was generally barely acknowledged. However, when documented, it was clearly significant. Penny Olsen and Lynette Russell have gathered together Aboriginal peoples' contributions to demonstrate the crucial role they played in early Australian zoology. The writings of the early European naturalists clearly describe the valuable knowledge of the Indigenous people of the habits of Australia's bizarre (to a European) fauna. Australia's First Naturalists is invaluable for those wanting to learn more about our original inhabitants' contribution to the collection, recognition and classification of Australia's unique fauna. It heightens our appreciation of the previously unrecognised complex knowledge of Indigenous societies. ...Show more

OUT OF THE DESERT by BULUGARDIE HONEY

$39.99 AUD

Category: History

Out of the Desert is a compelling collection of stories, art and photographs from the Walmajarri people of the Great Sandy Desert, in north western Australia. It tells of their remarkable exodus from remote desert country to an unfamiliar modern society. Within only one generation the Walmajarri desert dwellers left their traditional places behind to face station life and a world far beyond the sandhills. These accounts of a recent past reveal the challenges of the epic journey north to station country, the courage of the Walmajarri in confronting the unknown, and their first contact with white people. ...Show more

Jirigi Jinda Ardangarri, Burnarri Anja, Diigu Aagala - Birds by Ungarinyin (Ngarinyin), Worrorra and Wunambal Gaambera People of Mowanjum Community

$32.99 AUD

Category: General

Birds and what they tell us. By the Ungarinyin (Ngarinyin), Worrorra and Wunambal Gaambara people of Mowanjum Community.

Blank Book Aboriginal Art Various by Various (selected by the Federation of Children's Book Groups)

$12.99 AUD

Category: General

Ruby Moonlight (Prizewinner NSW Premier's Awards 2013 - Poetry + Book of the Year) by Ali Cobby Eckermann

$22.99 AUD

Category: General

Ruby Moonlight, a novel of the impact of colonisation in mid north South Australia around 1880. The main character, Ruby, refugee of a massacre, shelters in the woods where she befriends an Irishman trapper. The poems convey how fear of discovery is overcome by the need for human contact, which, in a te nse unravelling of events, is forcibly challenged by an Aboriginal lawman. The natural world is richly observed and Ruby's courtship is measured by the turning of the seasons. Winner of the 2012 Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature ...Show more