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y separately published work icon The Rabbits single work   picture book   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1998... 1998 The Rabbits
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"The rabbits came many grandparents ago.

They build houses, made roads, had children.

They cut down trees.

A whole continent of rabbits..." (back cover)

An allegorical story using rabbits, an introduced species, to represent the arrival of Europeans in Australia and the subsequent widespread environmental destruction.

Exhibitions

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Adaptations

y separately published work icon The Rabbits Lally Katz , Kate Miller-Heidke (composer), 2015 8043706 2015 single work drama opera

'John Marsden and Shaun Tan's haunting picture book tells a story we all know: a story of colonisation, civilisation and progress — a story about displacement, destruction and culture clash. And in that landscape, it tells a story of hope taking root.

'It's a story for young people, it's a story for old people, it's a story for all of us.

'Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company have assembled some of Australia's foremost creative talents to collaborate on a new opera for children and families.

'Gabriela Tylesova's kooky sets and costumes realise Tan's pictures in all of their mystical wonder, while Lally Katz has turned Marsden's spare poetry into an enchanting libretto. To write the score, Kate Miller Heidke: the butterfly-voiced, classically-trained indie-pop singer who is as at home on the charts as she is performing at the Met. As well as composing The Rabbits, Kate will perform in this production.' (Production summary)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For AC: Year 8 (NSW Stage 4)

Duration Four to five weeks

 Themes

Aboriginal history and culture, assimilation, colonisation, conflict and violence, connection to place, displacement, dispossession of land and culture, identity, Indigenous culture, invasion and occupation of Australia, natural world/environmentalism, place, Stolen Generations, the environment, the future, violence

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Sustainability

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Notes

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Chinese and Korean translations.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Lothian , 1998 .
      image of person or book cover 4904450462669923651.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 1 v.p.
      Description: col. illus.
      Reprinted: 1999
      ISBN: 0850918782 (hbk.)
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost and Found Shaun Tan , John Marsden , Shaun Tan (illustrator), New York (City) : Arthur A. Levine Books , 2011 Z1764283 2011 selected work picture book These three short stories focus on loss and despair to explore how we lose and find what matters most to us: a girl finds a bright spot in a dark world, a boy leads a strange, lost being home, and a group of peaceful creatures loses its home to cruel invaders.
    New York (City) : Arthur A. Levine Books , 2011
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Lothian , 2000 .
      Extent: 1 v.p.
      Description: col. illus.
      ISBN: 073440221X (pbk.)
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Andover, Southern Midlands, Midlands, Tasmania,: Lothian ; Ragged Bears , 2001 .
      Extent: 32p.
      ISBN: 073440221X
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Lothian , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 5189533999880711272.jpg
      ISBN: 9780734410788

Other Formats

Works about this Work

'We Feel the Roots of This Land Beneath the Soles of Our Bare Feet” : A Diffractive Reading of Plant Representation in Welcome to Country and The Rabbits Lykke Guanio-Uluru , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Storying Plants in Australian Children's and Young Adult Literature : Roots and Winged Seeds 2023; (p. 51-73)

'The picturebooks Welcome to Country: A Traditional Aboriginal Ceremony by Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy (2016) and The Rabbits (2008/2020) by John Marsden and Shaun Tan both thematise human relationships to land, from differing cultural viewpoints. Here, I investigate the role played by plants in the representation of the human-to-land interrelationship in the two works. Inspired by a diffractive reading methodology, I explore how both picturebooks, although they sprout from differing cultural epistemologies, draw on the power of trees to symbolise and explain cultural and ecological relationships. Since the two primary texts establish their own life world governed by differing epistemologies—and since uncovering this as a significant part of the analysis—I do not approach the texts with the same analytical lens. Rather, focussing on plant representation, I draw on the stories of Aboriginal Elders in my reading of Welcome to Country and on perspectives from colonial botany to discuss The Rabbits.' (Publication abstract)

Capturing "The Rabbits" Sarah Furlan , 2020 single work
— Appears in: NEW : Emerging Scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , March vol. 5 no. 1 2020;

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
'The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is a beautifully designed yet melancholy allegory for the ‘discovery’ and subsequent colonisation of Australia. With its focus on Indigenous Australian history, Marsden has managed to summarise much of the Australian colonisation process in just 229 words. Since it was first published in 1998, the picture book has won multiple awards and continues to be a relevant text, with the issues depicted throughout still significant in Australia’s contemporary social and political spheres.'
Capturing "The Rabbits" Sarah Furlan , 2020 single work
— Appears in: NEW : Emerging Scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , March vol. 5 no. 1 2020;

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
'The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is a beautifully designed yet melancholy allegory for the ‘discovery’ and subsequent colonisation of Australia. With its focus on Indigenous Australian history, Marsden has managed to summarise much of the Australian colonisation process in just 229 words. Since it was first published in 1998, the picture book has won multiple awards and continues to be a relevant text, with the issues depicted throughout still significant in Australia’s contemporary social and political spheres.'
Aboriginal Perspectives in English Classroom Texts Jessica Scarcella , Cathie Burgess , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 54 no. 1 2019; (p. 20-29)

'According to the NSW K–10 English Syllabus, all students should engage with ‘texts that give insight into Aboriginal experiences in Australia’. Along with the inclusion of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cross Curriculum Priority, this suggests that texts in English should develop deep understanding of Aboriginal cultures, experiences and perspectives. This project uses critical discourse analysis followed by content analysis, adapted from Lowe and Yunkaporta’s (2013) Cultural Analysis Matrix, to analyse representations of Aboriginal experiences and perspectives in six commonly used classroom texts to ascertain the nature and depth of the Aboriginal voices, experiences and perspectives within each text. This paper argues that texts which include Aboriginal characters and experiences through non-Aboriginal perspectives remain at risk of tokenism and/or shallow inclusion. However, texts which embody and value Aboriginal ways of knowing, doing and being demonstrate a capacity for more nuanced and genuine insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

The Rabbits 230 Years On Hollie Cheung , 2018 single work
— Appears in: NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , March vol. 4 no. 1 2018; (p. 105-107)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
'The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, is “a rich and haunting allegory for all ages, all cultures” (Marsden & Tan 1998). The 32-page picture book is a reference to Australia’s colonial past, exploring the history between British colonisers and Australia’s Indigenous population.'
[Review] The Rabbits Sue Clancy , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 43 no. 2 1999; (p. 17)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
[Review] The Rabbits Jane Connolly , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 13 no. 5 1998; (p. 31)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
[Review] The Rabbits Brenda O'Neill , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 13 no. 1 1999; (p. 19)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
Text Muddies a Striking View Katharine England , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 November 1998; (p. 27)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
Children's Book Council Books of the Year : Picture Books Jennifer Moran , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 21 August 1999; (p. 23)

— Review of The Rabbits John Marsden , 1998 single work picture book
The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 1999 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 43 no. 3 1999; (p. 3-12)
CBC Acceptance Speeches : John Marsden John Marsden , 1999 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 43 no. 4 1999; (p. 3-4)
CBC Acceptance Speeches : Shaun Tan Shaun Tan , 1999 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 43 no. 4 1999; (p. 4-5)
An Eidolon Interview with Shaun Tan Nick Stathopoulos (interviewer), 1999 single work interview
— Appears in: Eidolon : The Journal of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy , Winter no. 28 1999; (p. 41-46)
Shaun Tan answers questions about his approaches to book illustration and influences on his work.
Reading(s) Beneath the Surface : Using Picture Books to Develop a Critical Aesthetics Kerry Mallan , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Language and Literacy , vol. 23 no. 1 (p. 11-21)
Through various literary and illustrative devices, The Rabbits, One Less Fish, and Sand Swimmers demonstrate the complex interplay between two symbolic mediums. By her reading of the content and form of these books, Mallan draws attention to the need to engage students in a critical discourse which attends not only to the aesthetic and literary properties of these texts, but also considers their social and political implications.
Last amended 15 Feb 2022 14:06:59
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