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To celebrate Book Week in Australia, I am sharing a week’s worth of posts about #OwnVoices books, which is a concept coined in 2015 by Corrine Duyvis “to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.”
Other posts in this series:
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Wide Big World by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Isobel Knowles
- The Little Refugee by Anh & Suzanne Do, illustrated by Bruce Whatley
- Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott
In 2017, after a process of consultation with Indigenous communities across Australia, more than 250 delegates “coming from all points in the Southern Sky” attended the First Nations Constitutional Convention at Uluru. The delegation adopted the Uluru Statement from the Heart. “The Uluru Statement calls for a First Nations Voice to Parliament and a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making and truth-telling. These reforms are: Voice, Treaty, Truth.” (source)
The Uluru Statement has yet to result in meaningful systemic change, but it remains a landmark and critical document.
Finding our Heart: A Story About the Uluru Statement for young Australians, written by Torres Strait Islander author Thomas Mayor and illustrated by Koori artist Blak Douglas, examines the Uluru Statement from a historical and spiritual perspective in a voice appropriate for young readers.
The book opens with a statement of inclusivity, “…we come from many different parts of the world.” It then explains, in simple terms, the pre-colonial history of this land. The full -page AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia is an especially excellent resource and visual reminder that the map of states and territories we are used to is not the only way to see Australia.
Post-colonial history is explained in brief, honest language. On a page with the text, “When Captain Cook arrived, our way of life changed and we were treated badly and ignored,” the illustration shows tree cutting, land cultivation, water redirection and pollution, and industrial pollution. It speaks volumes.
Mayor then goes on to lay out the spiritual significance of the Uluru Statement. The reason begins, “Because our nation is sad and we need to find our nation’s heart to make it better.” I love that language for children.
The heart of our nation is not in any of the things that Europeans brought to Austrlalia, like farming, banks, or mining. The heart is in the soul and voice of our First Nations. Finding Our Heart concludes with an invitation to accept the gift of “our voice and our culture.”
We will only find the heart of our nation and make our country better when First Nations voices are heard.
The final pages offer some excellent, concise resources, including the text of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, background information, and ideas on how to help “find our heart.”
Finding Our Heart is a gorgeously illustrated and thoughtfully written book that gets to the core of why we need to make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices a much bigger part of Australian culture and law. The language is perfect for pre-school and above, and I don’t feel that there is a top age limit for enjoying and benefiting from this book.
This is *by no means* an exhaustive list, but a few other Own Voices books by Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander authors that we have loved and learned from include:
- My Culture and Me by Gregg Driese
- Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
- Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Murphy, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy
- Baby Business by Jasmine Seymour
- Our Home, Our Heartbeat by Adam Briggs, illustrated by Kate Moon and Rachel Sarra
Finding our Heart is published by Hardie Grant.
This review is self-funded.