First Nations of Australia: 6 wonderful new stories

This month at Booktopia, we’re celebrating the stories and storytelling of the First Nations of Australia.

There have been some truly incredible books released lately, from Miranda Tapsell’s brilliant memoir about being bold, black and brave in the 21st century to Briggs’ gorgeous picture book adapted from one of his songs, and we’ve picked out a couple of newer books that we think deserve some love.

Read on!

Our Home, Our Heartbeat

by Adam Briggs, Kate Moon (Illustrator) & Rachael Sarra (Illustrator)

Adapted from Briggs’ celebrated song ‘The Children Came Back’, Our Home, Our Heartbeat is a celebration of past and present Indigenous legends, as well as emerging generations, and at its heart honours the oldest continuous culture on earth.

Buy it here

What do you call a baby…?

by Kamsani Bin Salleh

Baby frogs are called tadpoles, but what do we call a baby goanna, a baby eagle, or a baby echidna? This stunning title introduces young children to their amazing names — hatching, eaglet and puggle.

Buy it here

Top End Girl

by Miranda Tapsell

In this engaging memoir, actress and Larrakia woman Miranda Tapsell shares the path she took to acting and how her role in The Sapphires and then in Love Child inspired her to create a film about coming back to family and culture.

Buy it here

The Drover’s Wife

by Leah Purcell

In the titular character of The Drover’s Wife, Leah Purcell has created a figure who is as resonant and significant as Ned Kelly. A taut thriller of our pioneering past, this play-turned-novel is full of fury, power, family love and intimate friendships, and has a black sting to the tail reaching from our nation’s settled infancy into our complicated present.

Buy it here

Fire Country

by Victor Steffensen

Delving deep into the Australian landscape and the environmental challenges we face, Fire Country is a powerful account from Indigenous land management expert Victor Steffensen on how the revival of Indigenous fire practices, including improved ’reading’ of country and undertaking ’cool burns’, could help to restore our nation.

Buy it here

Songspirals

by the Gay’wu Group of Women

Aboriginal Australian cultures are the oldest living cultures on earth and at the heart of Aboriginal cultures is song. These ancient narratives of landscape have often been described as a means of navigating across vast distances without a map, but they are much, much more than this. Songspirals are sung by Aboriginal people to awaken Country, to make and remake the life-giving connections between people and place. Songspirals is a rare opportunity for outsiders to experience Aboriginal women’s role in crying the songlines in a very authentic and direct form.

Buy it here

Check out the First Nations of Australia: Stories & Storytelling Collection here

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