ANZLL First Nations Literature Reading List: Fiction | ANZLL First Nations Reading List Non Fiction & Life Stories | ANZLL First Nations Reading List Drama, Poetry, Art & Music |
Cultural warning: First Nations Australians please be aware that this page contains the names of deceased persons.
This page was created on the traditional land of the Ngaruk-Willam clan, one of the six clans of the Bunerong (Boonwurrung or Boon wurrung) saltwater people of the Kulin nation.
Update 9/7/21 Thanks to numerous contributions from all over the world, this page was becoming too unwieldy to manage so it has been split into sub-categories. Please note that asterisked authors write across genres and their work will be found in more than one category.
Please read the Introduction on the main Reading List page first.
Children’s Books
(All these reviews are on my professional blog, LisaHillSchoolStuff.
- Book review: Silly Birds, by Gregg Dreise
- Book Review: Spinifex Mouse by Norma MacDonald
- Book Review: Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe
- Book Review: My Home Broome, by Tamzyne Richardson and Bronwyn Houston
- Book Review: Bubbay, A Christmas Adventure by Josie Wowolla Boyle and Fern Martins
- Book review: The Little Corroboree Frog, by Tracey Holton-Ramirez and Angela Ramirez
- Book review: Indigenous First Discovery Series, by Debbie Austin
- Book review: Tracker Tjugingi by Bob Randall and Kunyi June-Anne McInerney
Aunty Patsy Cameron, a descendant of the Pairebeenne Trawlwoolway clan in North East Tasmania, and Lisa Kennedy a descendant of the coastal Pairebeenne/Trawlwoolway clan.
- Sea Country
Gregg Dreise, a Kamilaroi and Euahlayi author and illustrator from northwest NSW
- Common Wealth: A Slam Poetry Persuasive | A picture book for older readers. Contains some confronting imagery
Kunyi June Anne McInerney whose family’s language group is Yankunytjatjara.
- Kunyi
Nhulunbuy Primary School
- I saw we saw
Oodgeroo Noonuccal a.k.a. Kath Walker of the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island, Queensland
- Stradbroke Dreaming
Jasmine Seymour and Leanne Mulgo Watson of Darug ancestry in New South Walers
- Cooee Mittigar: A story on darug songlines
Ben Tyler, from the Bininj/Mungguy peoples and cultures of Kakadu, writing collaboratively with Diane Lucas and Emma Long
- Walking in Gagudji Country: Exploring the Monsoon Forest
Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, a Senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin alliance in Victoria, and Lisa Kennedy, a Trawlwoolway story teller and artist and a descendant of Woretemoeteyenner from North East Tasmania
- Welcome to Country
Brona from Brona’s books has reviewed a wonderful collection of children’s books in her post Indigenous Picture Books for Children. They include
- Baby Business (2019) by Jasmine Seymour, a member of the Durag Custodian Aboriginal Corporation;
- Sorry Day (2018) by Coral Vass and illustrated by Dub Leffler, from the Bigambul and Mandandanji people of SW Queensland;
- Little Bird’s Day (2019) by Sally Morgan from the Bailgu people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, a Yolgu man from the Ganalbingu clan;
- Welcome to Country (2019) by Aunty Joy Murphy and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy. Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin AO is an Elder of the Wurundjeri People of Melbourne and environs, and Lisa Kennedy is a descendant of the Trawlwoolway People on the north-east coast of Tasmania;
- Wilam: A Birrarung Story (2019) is another story by Aunty Joy Murphy with Andrew Kelly, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy. Andrew Kelly is a Yarra Riverkeeper;
- My Culture and Me (2019) by Gregg Dreise, a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi tribes, from south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales;
- Black Cockatoo (2018) by Carl Merrison, a Jaru man from Halls Creek and his partner Hakea Hustler.
Brona also included in her collection The Land of the Echidna People, the eighth book in Percy Trezise’s Journey to the Great Lakes series. Neither Tresize nor the illustrator Mary Lewis are indigenous, but he worked throughout his life in artistic collaboration with Dick Roughsey, from the Lardil language group on Mornington Island in the south-eastern Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland and there can be little doubt that these books belong in any collection of Indigenous picture books for children.
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