AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Beneath the earth are older things than perhaps we understand; as old as the ground in which they live, and part of it. Every so often, when the time is right, the Nyol, Net-Net, Pot-Koorak and Bitarr appear again above the earth to visit the world that was once theirs alone.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Puffin edition).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Gift and the Ethics of Representing Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 2 2016; (p. 33-45)'This paper draws on theories of the gift to address the ethics of representing Aboriginality in Australian children's literature, which is a contentious debate that centres on who is eligible to tell Aboriginal stories and how the stories can be told. Considering the historical indebtedness in Australian racial relations, the paper suggests that children's books that incorporate reference to Aboriginal cultural elements constitute a metaphorical 'gift' exchange between Aboriginal custodians as the givers and writers as the recipients who are expected to 'return' such an intellectual gift through their books in an appropriate manner. In this view, the paper specifies the ethical issues confronted by non-Aboriginal writers for children, including Patricia Wrightson, Phillip Gwynne and Kate Constable, and examines the way in which the gift relationship sheds light on the question of how to avoid infringement of Aboriginal protocols without submitting to self-censorship. A caring gesture, underlining the relationship between self and others in gift exchanges, is identified to negotiate the writer's interests in Aboriginal stories with cultural sensitivity against unauthorised appropriation. The paper therefore argues that the morality of gift exchanges, which demands a balanced consideration of disparate interests in obligatory reciprocation, offers a possible solution to the dilemma of non-Aboriginal writers in the treatment of Aboriginal subject matter.' (Publication abstract)
-
Patricia Wrightson : A Dreaming - Lilith Norman Talks About an Old Friend
1994
single work
column
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 9 no. 5 1994; (p. 18-20) -
Patricia Wrightson : At the Edge of Australian Vision
1981
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 99-130) -
Patricia Wrightson : the Making of Myth
1978
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 68 1978; (p. 11-14) -
Hurtling into Freedom
1974
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 52 1974; (p. 6-7)
-
Untitled
1973
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 46 1973; (p. 29)
— Review of An Older Kind of Magic 1972 single work children's fiction -
Patricia Wrightson : A Dreaming - Lilith Norman Talks About an Old Friend
1994
single work
column
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 9 no. 5 1994; (p. 18-20) -
Patricia Wrightson : At the Edge of Australian Vision
1981
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 99-130) -
Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report 1973
1973
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , July no. 48 1973; (p. 3-5) -
Hurtling into Freedom
1974
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 52 1974; (p. 6-7) -
Patricia Wrightson : the Making of Myth
1978
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 68 1978; (p. 11-14)
Awards
- 1973 highly commended CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Book of the Year Award
- Sydney City, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,