Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Reading Time
    • Home
    • Reviews
      • Highly Recommended
      • CBCA Short Listed
      • Early Childhood Books
      • Younger Readers
      • Intermediate Readers
      • Older Readers
      • Great Read Alouds
      • Information Books
      • Picture Books
      • Professional Development
    • Interviews
    • Suggestions
    • News
    • Meet The Review Team
    • Contact Us
    Reading Time
    You are at:Home»Reviews»Information Books»Heroes, Rebels and Innovators

    Heroes, Rebels and Innovators

    0
    By Admin on October 17, 2021 Information Books, Reviews

    Karen Wyld (author) and Jaelyn Biumaiwai (illustrator), Heroes, Rebels and Innovators: Inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People from History, Hachette Australia, July 2021, 32 pp., $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734419835

    This lavish and beautiful book tells the stories of seven Aboriginal heroes and heroines from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth. Each character’s story is presented once through a text that is dramatic, poetic, and vivid, then it is told again through a more sober historical text. You might say that the story is told once proper way, then repeated white way.

    Each of the historical figures is presented as a stylish semi-abstracted portrait by Jaelyn Biumaiwai, a Mununjali and Fijian woman. These depictions are beyond being illustration, for they are artworks in themselves and make the book worth having for them alone. The stories are gripping, enlightening and important. Some of them are accounts of collaboration and alliance, such as Patyegarang’s willingness to teach William Dawes her local language, or Bungaree and Cora Gooseberry mingling with Sydneysiders in the 1790s. Some of the figures were warriors, including the armed freedom fighter Tarenorerer of Van Diemen’s Land, around 1800. Sometimes they were at hand to rescue the colonists from their own foolishness, like Yarri and Jacky Jacky who rescued nearly seventy people from floods at Gundagai in 1852. They did this on their bark canoes, and have been remembered as Wiradjuri heroes with a statue in modern day Gundagai. Many though have been forgotten, repressed or neglected.

    This important book is an antidote to histories of Australia that don’t attend to the complexity of historical interactions between Indigenous peoples and invader-settlers. Such stories will also hopefully inspire pride and deepening interest in history among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers.

    This is Karen Wyld’s first children’s book. She is of Martu descent (Pilbara region). I hope there are more of this quality to come. Recommended for readers from five to fifteen.

    Reviewed by Kevin Brophy

    Australian history First Nations History illustrations Indigenous author Indigenous illustrator

    Related Posts

    Moonlight Riders

    The Butterfly and the Ants

    Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    • Themes
    • Curriculum
    Action adventure Airplanes Alphabet Anxiety autism Bullying CBCA Awards Coming of age Dystopian emotions family fantasy friendship grief Historical humour magic Mystery Post apocalyptic Readers Cup reluctant readers school Sci-Fi series of books siblings Sport Starting school Teacher Notes
    ANZAC Australian animals Australian history Biography Culture & Diversity Disabilities First Nations Geography health Humanities mental health Poetry Reconciliation resilience Science STEM Stolen Generation sustainability Wordless books



    Recent Comments
    • Barbara on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    Recent Posts
    • Moonlight Riders
    • The Butterfly and the Ants
    • Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
    • Everything You Want to See
    • The Cult of Romance
    Recent Comments
    • Barbara on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    © Copyright 2021 The Children’s Book Council of Australia - All rights reserved

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.