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y separately published work icon The Last of His Tribe single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 The Last of His Tribe
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A lonely Australian Aboriginal warrior thinks of the time before his people were wiped out by the white man, and wonders what the future holds for him as the last member of his tribe.

Notes

  • A picture book which incorporates the text of the 1869 poem The Last of His Tribe by Henry Kendall.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Minding Your 'Ps and Qs' : Poetry, Propaganda, Politics and Pictures Alison Halliday , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , August vol. 12 no. 2 2002; (p. 38-49)
Halliday critiques two picture books, The Last of His Tribe (Henry Kendall )and The Drover's Boy (Ted Egan & Robert Ingpen) by asking who speaks, who is silenced and what constructions are used to reinforce this silence in texts which purport to represent Aboriginal people and their experiences. Halliday argues that these texts (like many others), say more about the construction of white identity than they do about Aboriginality and that they reinforce an ideologiocal position that is fundamentally racist (p.38). This occurs through the representation of Aboriganal people as '...a race whom history has passed by' and Halliday asks the question, are these texts are an attempt to reconcile [white] feelings of shame and sorrow or are they blatant propganda?(pp.38, 47) She concludes her analysis by arguing that while these texts may introduce the child reader to some of the untold stories and lost histories of Aboriginal people, essentially they reinforce 'a dominant white hegemony as the desired norm for Australian society' (p.47).
Untitled H. M. Saxby , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , vol. 35 no. 2 1991; (p. 21)

— Review of The Last of His Tribe Henry Kendall , 1989 single work picture book
Untitled H. M. Saxby , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , vol. 35 no. 2 1991; (p. 21)

— Review of The Last of His Tribe Henry Kendall , 1989 single work picture book
Minding Your 'Ps and Qs' : Poetry, Propaganda, Politics and Pictures Alison Halliday , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , August vol. 12 no. 2 2002; (p. 38-49)
Halliday critiques two picture books, The Last of His Tribe (Henry Kendall )and The Drover's Boy (Ted Egan & Robert Ingpen) by asking who speaks, who is silenced and what constructions are used to reinforce this silence in texts which purport to represent Aboriginal people and their experiences. Halliday argues that these texts (like many others), say more about the construction of white identity than they do about Aboriginality and that they reinforce an ideologiocal position that is fundamentally racist (p.38). This occurs through the representation of Aboriganal people as '...a race whom history has passed by' and Halliday asks the question, are these texts are an attempt to reconcile [white] feelings of shame and sorrow or are they blatant propganda?(pp.38, 47) She concludes her analysis by arguing that while these texts may introduce the child reader to some of the untold stories and lost histories of Aboriginal people, essentially they reinforce 'a dominant white hegemony as the desired norm for Australian society' (p.47).
Last amended 18 Jun 2008 12:58:31
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