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y separately published work icon Joshua and the Two Crabs single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Joshua and the Two Crabs
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Joshua Button is a young Indigenous author with a keen interest in the saltwater country he has grown up in. His observations of his family's fishing trip to Crab Creek give us a unique opportunity to see this adventure through his eyes. Joshua's delightful illustrations are both insightful and evocative of the beauty of Crab Creek. Crab Creek is a tidal creek that lies in the mangroves of Roebuck Bay near Broome, in the Kimberley region of north-west Western Australia.' (Publisher's blurb)

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Works about this Work

Growing Up the Future : Children's Stories and Aboriginal Ecology Blaze Kwaymullina , Brooke Collins-Gearing , Ambelin Kwaymullina , Tracie Pushman , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: M/C Journal , vol. 15 no. 3 2012;

'In the context of children’s literature and ecology the idea of sustaining environmental and cultural awareness is shared via the written word—how it is used, presented, and read, particularly with ideas of the child reader in mind.  Our children will be the ones who struggle with the ripples we leave in our wake and they will be the ones who count the cost of our decisions as they in turn make decisions for the generations that will follow them. If we teach the right values then the behaviour of our children will reflect those ideas. In the Aboriginal way it’s about getting the story right, so that they can learn the right ways to be in Country, to be a human being, and to look after the world they inherit. As Deborah Bird Rose states, Country is a “nourishing terrain; a place that gives and receives life” (Rose Country 7).

This paper will examine two Aboriginal children’s stories that teach about a living, holistic, interrelated world and the responsibilities of human beings to look after it. Specifically, the authors will examine Joshua and the Two Crabs by Joshua Button and Dingo’s Tree by Gladys and Jill Milroy. Both stories are published by Aboriginal publisher Magabala Books and represent a genre of Aboriginal writing about Country and how to take care of it. They form part of the “language of that different yield” (Hogan 122) that Indigenous writer Linda Hogan advocates, a language that emerges from an ecology of the mind that locates human beings as an interconnected part of the patterns of the earth.  The first text discussion focuses on the sharing of implicit meaning via textual form—that is, the lay out of the story, its peritext, and illustrations. The second textual discussion centres explicitly on content and meaning. Both textual analyses aim to open up a dialogue between Aboriginal ecology and children’s literature to provide inter-subjective approaches for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal readers/listeners.'

Source: Introduction.

Untitled Joshua Button , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 52 no. 4 2008; (p. 20)

— Review of Joshua and the Two Crabs Joshua Button , 2008 single work children's fiction
Untitled Joshua Button , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 52 no. 4 2008; (p. 20)

— Review of Joshua and the Two Crabs Joshua Button , 2008 single work children's fiction
Growing Up the Future : Children's Stories and Aboriginal Ecology Blaze Kwaymullina , Brooke Collins-Gearing , Ambelin Kwaymullina , Tracie Pushman , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: M/C Journal , vol. 15 no. 3 2012;

'In the context of children’s literature and ecology the idea of sustaining environmental and cultural awareness is shared via the written word—how it is used, presented, and read, particularly with ideas of the child reader in mind.  Our children will be the ones who struggle with the ripples we leave in our wake and they will be the ones who count the cost of our decisions as they in turn make decisions for the generations that will follow them. If we teach the right values then the behaviour of our children will reflect those ideas. In the Aboriginal way it’s about getting the story right, so that they can learn the right ways to be in Country, to be a human being, and to look after the world they inherit. As Deborah Bird Rose states, Country is a “nourishing terrain; a place that gives and receives life” (Rose Country 7).

This paper will examine two Aboriginal children’s stories that teach about a living, holistic, interrelated world and the responsibilities of human beings to look after it. Specifically, the authors will examine Joshua and the Two Crabs by Joshua Button and Dingo’s Tree by Gladys and Jill Milroy. Both stories are published by Aboriginal publisher Magabala Books and represent a genre of Aboriginal writing about Country and how to take care of it. They form part of the “language of that different yield” (Hogan 122) that Indigenous writer Linda Hogan advocates, a language that emerges from an ecology of the mind that locates human beings as an interconnected part of the patterns of the earth.  The first text discussion focuses on the sharing of implicit meaning via textual form—that is, the lay out of the story, its peritext, and illustrations. The second textual discussion centres explicitly on content and meaning. Both textual analyses aim to open up a dialogue between Aboriginal ecology and children’s literature to provide inter-subjective approaches for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal readers/listeners.'

Source: Introduction.

Last amended 24 Apr 2020 08:36:26
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