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y separately published work icon Alfred's War single work   single work   picture book   children's   Indigenous story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Alfred's War
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Alfred’s War is a powerful story that unmasks the lack of recognition given to Australian Indigenous servicemen who returned from the WWI battlelines. Alfred was just a young man when he was injured and shipped home from France. Neither honoured as a returned soldier or offered government support afforded to non-Indigenous servicemen, Alfred took up a solitary life walking the back roads – billy tied to his swag, finding work where he could.

'Alfred was a forgotten soldier. Although he had fought bravely in the Great War, as an Aboriginal man he wasn’t classed as a citizen of his own country. Yet Alfred always remembered his friends in the trenches and the mateship they had shared. Sometimes he could still hear the never-ending gunfire in his head and the whispers of diggers praying. Every year on ANZAC Day, Alfred walked to the nearest town, where he would quietly stand behind the people gathered and pay homage to his fallen mates.

'Rachel Bin Salleh’s poignant narrative opens our hearts to the sacrifice and contribution that Indigenous people have made to Australia’s war efforts, the true extent of which is only now being revealed.' (Publication summary)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For AC: Year 6 (NSW Stage 3)

Duration 3 to 4 lessons per week for 5 weeks

 Themes belonging, History, identity, isolation, memory, war

General Capabilities Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Literacy

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

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Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

The Use of Images to Explore the Indigenous Experience of Conflict in Australian Children's Picturebooks Margaret Mary Baguley , Martin Kerby , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 61 no. 3 2023; (p. 55-64)

'Australian children's picturebook authors and illustrators who choose armed conflict as their subject matter inevitably grapple with the paradox that, while war is a central component of national identity, the experience of Indigenous peoples remains, at best, underrepresented. This article uses the ideational, interpersonal, and textual meta-functions developed by Clare Painter et al. to compare how the Indigenous experience of conflict is represented in the Australian children's picturebooks Alfred's War (Bin Salleh and Fry) and Multuggerah and the Sacred Mountain (Uhr and O'Halloran).' (Publication abstract)
Forging Truth from Facts : Trauma, Historicity and Australian Children's Picture Books Martin Kerby , Margaret Mary Baguley , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Lion and the Unicorn , September vol. 44 no. 3 2020; (p. 281-301) 'Though they can find themselves constrained by the imagined “demands of children’s literature as sanitary, benign, and didactic” (Tribunella 102), children’s picture book authors and illustrators regularly attempt to engage with “unimaginable, unspeakable, and un-representable horror” (Trezise 43). Whether it be in the form of genocide, war, persecution or displacement, they tend not to shy away from the atrocities of history when searching for subject matter. However, the balancing of the sanitary with the unimaginable demands a compromise. Authors and illustrators invariably soften, perhaps even distort the horror in their efforts to be morally instructive. In their creation of a “parable of war” (MacCallum-Stewart 177) they explore the underlying humanist principles of the stories they tell, rather than historical perspectives. This approach transforms historical particularities into “universals of human experience” (Stephens 238). Trauma is sometimes directly confronted, but this is the exception rather than the rule (Kertzer, “Anxiety” 208). Kidd contends that at “least some of the children’s literature of atrocity turns away from rather than confronts the difficulties of its subject matter, opting for simplistic narratives of character empowerment adapted from self-help literature” (185). For in any battle between hope and trauma, or at least the ones played out in children’s literature, the former usually emerges triumphant. As a result, books such as the three analyzed in this article are often very successful in exploring broader issues of personal morality, but they make for dubious history. The critical and commercial success of works that adopt this approach suggests that the book buying public share this preference for morality tales over historical accuracy.' (Introduction)
The Great War in Recent Children's and YA Books Rayma Turton , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 33 no. 1 2018; (p. 16-17)
— Review of Armistice Ruth Starke , 2018 picture book ; In the Lamplight Dianne Wolfer , 2018 single work picture book ; Alfred's War Rachel Bin Salleh , 2018 single work single work picture book ; 1918 Libby Gleeson , 2018 single work children's fiction
Alfred's War to Give an Insight 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 21 March no. 672 2018; (p. 39)

'Rachel Bin Salleh and Samantha Fry are hoping to unmask the lack of recognition given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen after World War I with their new children's book Alfred's War.'
The Great War in Recent Children's and YA Books Rayma Turton , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 33 no. 1 2018; (p. 16-17)
— Review of Armistice Ruth Starke , 2018 picture book ; In the Lamplight Dianne Wolfer , 2018 single work picture book ; Alfred's War Rachel Bin Salleh , 2018 single work single work picture book ; 1918 Libby Gleeson , 2018 single work children's fiction
Alfred's War to Give an Insight 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 21 March no. 672 2018; (p. 39)

'Rachel Bin Salleh and Samantha Fry are hoping to unmask the lack of recognition given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen after World War I with their new children's book Alfred's War.'
Forging Truth from Facts : Trauma, Historicity and Australian Children's Picture Books Martin Kerby , Margaret Mary Baguley , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Lion and the Unicorn , September vol. 44 no. 3 2020; (p. 281-301) 'Though they can find themselves constrained by the imagined “demands of children’s literature as sanitary, benign, and didactic” (Tribunella 102), children’s picture book authors and illustrators regularly attempt to engage with “unimaginable, unspeakable, and un-representable horror” (Trezise 43). Whether it be in the form of genocide, war, persecution or displacement, they tend not to shy away from the atrocities of history when searching for subject matter. However, the balancing of the sanitary with the unimaginable demands a compromise. Authors and illustrators invariably soften, perhaps even distort the horror in their efforts to be morally instructive. In their creation of a “parable of war” (MacCallum-Stewart 177) they explore the underlying humanist principles of the stories they tell, rather than historical perspectives. This approach transforms historical particularities into “universals of human experience” (Stephens 238). Trauma is sometimes directly confronted, but this is the exception rather than the rule (Kertzer, “Anxiety” 208). Kidd contends that at “least some of the children’s literature of atrocity turns away from rather than confronts the difficulties of its subject matter, opting for simplistic narratives of character empowerment adapted from self-help literature” (185). For in any battle between hope and trauma, or at least the ones played out in children’s literature, the former usually emerges triumphant. As a result, books such as the three analyzed in this article are often very successful in exploring broader issues of personal morality, but they make for dubious history. The critical and commercial success of works that adopt this approach suggests that the book buying public share this preference for morality tales over historical accuracy.' (Introduction)
The Use of Images to Explore the Indigenous Experience of Conflict in Australian Children's Picturebooks Margaret Mary Baguley , Martin Kerby , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 61 no. 3 2023; (p. 55-64)

'Australian children's picturebook authors and illustrators who choose armed conflict as their subject matter inevitably grapple with the paradox that, while war is a central component of national identity, the experience of Indigenous peoples remains, at best, underrepresented. This article uses the ideational, interpersonal, and textual meta-functions developed by Clare Painter et al. to compare how the Indigenous experience of conflict is represented in the Australian children's picturebooks Alfred's War (Bin Salleh and Fry) and Multuggerah and the Sacred Mountain (Uhr and O'Halloran).' (Publication abstract)
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Awards

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Last amended 24 Apr 2020 08:55:21
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