AustLit

'Early on a July morning in 1983 I drove with Ruth Lipscomb from Darwin to Jabiru. She was visiting the school there and had offered to take me along. She picked me up from my motel around 6 am. Just before we reached the Alligator River, she pulled off the road and produced a flask of hot tea and a packet of sandwiches that she had thoughtfully prepared. As we stood by the roadside she drew my attention to the song of a distant bird. ‘People around here’, she said, ‘when they hear that bird know that a particular tree is in flower and coming into fruit’. I do not recall either the name of the bird or of the tree. But what has stuck with me was the sudden awareness of the importance to a hunter-gatherer people of their knowledge of the signs of seasonal change around them. They lived and still live by a calendar not divided into mathematically determined months and seasons but one they can read in the appearance of winds and cloud, in the songs of the bird life around them, in the behaviour of the animals, reptiles and insects, and in the flowering and fruiting of the plants growing in their country. ' (Introduction)

Long ago, when the great spirit ancestors were making the land, two spirit brother lived in north-west Victoria. They were the brave warriors Barmbarmbult. This story recounts one of their many adventures.' (Back cover)

'Emu, Gecko and the Little Boy is a Nunggubuyu story from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The Nunggubuyu people own the country near Numbulwar on the eastern coast of Arnhem Land near Groote Island.' (Back cover)

'Emu and Brolga is an Aboriginal story from the Nunggubuyu people. The Nunggubuyu people own the country near Numbulwar on the eastern coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory' (Back cover)

'History of the Kombumeri people from the Gold Coast region of Queensland, up to the 1990's, life before and after settlement' (Source: Catholic Schools Office, Armidale website)

'Tells the story of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land. Looks at Yolngu cultural origins and how they were adapted to early missionary intervention and other external influences, so ensuring that today Yolngu identity still remains strong. Suggested level: intermediate, junior secondary.' (Source: Google Books website)

History of the Wangkangurru people from the Simpson Desert region of South Australia, up to the 1990's ; life before and after settlement; includes brief life history of Judy Lucas

'Kevin Gilbert died in Canberra on 1 April 1993 of emphysema. He was 59, having been born at Condobolin in Wiradjuri country in 1933. It is to be doubted that Kevin is at rest. He never would rest in life so long as justice was denied all of Australia's Aboriginal peoples. His spirit is not likely to rest so long as that injustice remains.'  (Introduction)

'Gurangatch and Mirragan is a story from the Gandangarra tribe who live by the Wollondilly River in New South Wales. This story tells of how Gurangatch made the rivers and valleys of the southern highlands of New South Wales.' (Back cover)