Children's stories by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and illustrators are funny, sad, thoughtful, silly, profound, and joyous.
Enter into the many worlds of Indigenous children's literature on the terms of the First Peoples.
Listen to their voices speaking of their own realities.
Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal writer and illustrator from the Palyku people.
She says the best way to learn and understand Indigenous people is by reading their stories written in their own voices.
"People are very aware now that in the past there's been a lot of disrespectful learning and that they want a respectful way to connect. The best and the easiest way is to start connecting with Indigenous stories because stories that had been told by Indigenous people about Indigenous people are inherently in respectful space. It means Indigenous people have chosen what information they want to put in the public domain and they are telling these stories in their own voice. So I think that these narrative spaces are incredible spaces for people to come together."
These books are works of art, philosophy, culture, history and language that speak as much to adults as to children.
The following tales represent multiple points of entry into the many worlds of Indigenous Australia, and they are only a small fraction of the children's narratives that exist.
This list is not an end point, but simply places to begin an exploration of the great diversity of Indigenous Australia.
"Books for example like Maralinga, which was done by the Anangu people with Christobel Mattingley, is a book which is very much an art book and a history book, and a culture book as it is a picture book. So it captures a lot within those pages. There is other picture books that are the same, so books like Down the Hole, published by IAD Press, which is a stolen generation story, and Tjarany Roughtail, published by Magabala books, which contains dreaming stories as well as kinship maps and cultural information, are just the most incredible cultural and historical tones captured in that story book."
All these books are rich sources of Indigenous cultures, perspectives and experiences that speak both through bilingual written narrative and stunning Aboriginal artwork.
The layered depths of Indigenous artwork provide another means of interacting with Indigenous story-spaces.
"Art is such a universal language. It's a language that everybody can connect to and it's a visceral and visual language. It's a language that people have an immediate reaction to so I think art is so important and getting those stories across through art has always been a way, which Indigenous people have told our stories. So to be able to embody that in the picture book form, which can then be shown to so many people, because you have a physical book that can go everywhere, I think is a really amazing thing."
Among the talented Australian Indigenous illustrators are Bronwyn Bancroft, a prolific writer, illustrator and artist and the first Indigenous recipient of the Dromkeen medal.
Artist Dubleffler, whose celebrated debut Once there was a Boy was shortlisted for the Deadly Awards and the Indigenous children story-makers who created the award winning Yijalayala big Hart comics.
"In children's literature at the moment, and also in television programming at the moment, there are a lot of voices that aren't being heard. So part of the challenge taken up by Indigenous writers and by other diverse writers is to really tackle that and to start telling our own stories and try and get those stories out there so people can connect with us through literature."
The need for more Indigenous stories for children has seen a number of series produced containing multiple Indigenous perspectives, including Yarning Strong and Waarda.
'Waarda' is a Noongar word for sharing stories, and the Waarda series is a West Australian based project which published WA Aboriginal women writers telling stories for and about Aboriginal children for primary school readers."
The Yarning Strong series is a national initiative that contains novels by different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, and includes books suitable for eight year olds through to the first two years of high school.
Both Waarda and Yarning Strong showcase the joys, difficulties and complexities of being Indigenous in Australia today from multiple Indigenous perspectives.
The past few years have seen an explosion of Indigenous authors writing within the Young Adult genre, joining earlier YA works such as Melissa Lucashenko's Darcy and Boori Monty Pryor and Meme McDonald's Maybe Tomorrow.
Jared Thomas' Magabala tells of the multi-faceted experience of a contemporary experience of being an Indigenous teenager, including coping with racism and negotiating the protection of cultural ecological knowledge.
"Certainly for Indigenous children and teenagers, it really is vital to have those books written by Indigenous people - that means they can not just connect with the story, they can connect with the storyteller, and they can see that they themselves could be a storyteller. Historically, there hasn't been a lot of books like that included in the school curriculum and there is still a problem with diversity in Australian children's literature and a problem with diverse voices being heard."
Aboriginal Studies Press has recently produced an Ethical Publishing Guide for all Australian publishers dealing with Indigenous authors and illustrators.
The publisher with the largest range of Indigenous children's literature is Magabala Books.
"Magabala books was set up initially, partly, in response to a concern about the number of stories that were being taken from Indigenous communities without permission and republished elsewhere. So they have been very strong from the very beginning on educating Indigenous people and communities about copyright and about what their rights are, and about what they have to be careful of and that's a role they continue to play to this present day."
For more Indigenous content visit www.sbs.com.au/topics/walk-with-us
