Indigenous People in children's literature

[Beatrice]

I've come across a couple of links recently about Native American perspectives on their portrayal in children's literature and curriculum.

American Indians in Children's Literature (http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/) blog.
Oyate (http://www.oyate.org). They have a list of books to avoid (http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/index.html) (which was a bit of an eye opener, especially reading the glosses on some of the books) and a catalog of recommended titles (http://www.oyate.org/catalog/index.html).

I'd love to know of any similar groups with an Australian perspective, if anyone knows of one.

Tangentially, I also found the LJ community 50books_poc (http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/profile) which is a challenge to read 50 books by people of colour in a year. It's a fantastic place for recommendations, including a tag for children's books (http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/tag/children%27s+books).

[GreenGully]

Fascinating stuff, and important too. Thank you!

[Ceres]

Without opening any of those links, I don't think I've seen a children's book with an aboriginal character in it that wasn't about aboriginal culture as such. I can't think of an example where the race of the character was a non-issue. Happy to be corrected if someone can find one though!

[Aurora]

Me either Ceres. But thanks for sharing Beatrice! GreenGully is right, super important. There is a great book for children aged 10-16 called ''Maybe Tomorrow'' (although adults would enjoy it too) by Boori Prior about his own life as an Indigenous story teller,/dancer travelling around to schools educating people and sharing his culture, he talks about people's misconceptions about Indigenous people etc, it's interesting.

[Beatrice]

It was particularly interesting reading about some books which are supposed to be a sympathetic retelling of some aspect of Indian culture or history by a non-Native American, and see how badly it's possible to fuck that up. For instance I've read Brother Eagle Sister Sky to my kids and probably thought I was being sensitive and culturally aware but apparently the author and illustrator did diddly squat in the way of research and the figures she drew are from a totally different tribe than that of the "speaker" (and she sanitised the words of his speech to the point of completely misrepresenting it, too). But the reviewer makes a subtler point about how the illustrations portray Indians as a dead culture, a ghostly backdrop to white occupation, and perpetuate the myth that "real" Indian culture stopped after first contact. I bet there's lots of that in stories about Aboriginal people which I've never picked up on because I've never *had* to, since I have the privilege of having stories written about my culture and people as the default.

It's a really, really interesting read.

[Beatrice]

I was looking for this thread earlier. Just wanted to add the books by Louise Erdrich (of the Anishinabek nation), The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence and The Porcupine Year. I haven't read them yet, but I plan to buy them soon.

I went back to the Oyate site and they've taken down their list of Books to Avoid, but they've replaced it with two lists of criteria to use (http://www.oyate.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134&Itemid=107) in evaluating whether a book is respectful of indigenous cultures or not. I think that will be really useful in looking for Australian books.

[Yiriyinaa]

Thanks for the links and this discussion. To b honest I'm not sure whether or not Australian Childrens literature has been evaluated in this way or not yet.
One set of Australian Childrens classics that horrifies me as an Aboriginal womyn is the Snugglepot n Cuddlepie books. Have u noticed that all the blossom and gumnut babies have white skin and that the 'badies' the big bad banksia men have dark brown / black skin and big lubra lips. The banksia men steal the blossom babies. It's pretty scary looking at the book in the context of Australian race history.

[Yiriyinaa]

I also feel that any 'Aboriginal cultural' or 'Aboriginal' themed Childrens books are problematic unless they are by an Aboriginal author. If the author is non-Aboriginal they have either taken Aboriginal information learned from Aboriginal people (and possibly misrepresented it) or taken information from other books that was learned by Aboriginal people.
I feel it is wrong for a non-Aboriginal person to take Aboriginal knowledge and use it for their own purposes (Ie. A book with THEIR name on it). I feel the only ethical Aboriginal Childrens books are either written by Aboriginal authors or co-written by Aboriginal authors working in collaboration with non-Aboriginal authors where it is made clear that the cultural knowledge came from the Aboriginal person. In my opinion the only ethical non-Aboriginal authors are those who assist the disadvantaged into publication by mentoring either without crediting themselves at all or by co-authorship where it is agreed. Seeing 'Aboriginal' books written by non-aboriginal people so shits me when they don't acknowledge their teachers and write for personal gain when any money created from the use of Aboriginal peoples knowledge ought to go back to the custodians of that knowledge.

[Beatrice]

Yeah, it's such a huge issue. I've been trying to bring more Aboriginal stuff home from the library but half the stuff in their catalogue is the older retellings by white authors. I've been doing some Googling for titles by indigenous authors to request that they buy for the collection, the Magabala Press site has some good books.

I haven't re-read Snugglepot and Cuddlepie since I was a kid but thinking about it, you're absolutely right about the Banksia Men :disbelief Ugh. It never occurred to me as a kid. I haven't read them to my kids because I think they're horribly twee, but now I definitely won't be.

I was thinking more about reading problematic stuff like Laura Ingalls Wilder, with its really jarring racism and colonialism, to my kids, but I still feel that on the whole, it's still worth a critical reading because as a white person, with no indigenous ancestry of any kind, it's important to problematise attitudes which were generally accepted in their day and now aren't (or at least aren't as openly acceptable). Without indigenous ancestry to identify with, my people were the ones who thought that it was perfectly okay to kill indigenous people and steal their land, and I don't want to ignore that ancestral culpability. I think it's actually valuable to show kids that social attitudes towards eg. racism aren't universal and unchangeable, and sometimes it can be useful to look at it as a part of characters which the reader is invited to find sympathetic. There are a lot of scenes in LIW which make me absolutely cringe to read them and it was good to see that K and B have been horrified and keen to reflect on why this content is so jarring. I think it can help to undermine the attitude that "Racists are horrible people therefore I'm not racist because I'm not a horrible person", which too often gets in the way of white people exploring our own privilege. But I think it's absolutely essential to present anything like this cautiously and in a critical framework right from the start, and never to let it go unchallenged when reading older literature, because the books we surround our kids with are such an important method of cultural transmission.

[Kris]

Jackie French's Matilda was a book that I enjoyed when I read it recently. She's not Aboriginal but I'd be interested in some perspective.

There are some anti bias books which we've bought for our children. They're American but excellent in that they're stories about things children encounter but without the usual rider of white anglo kids and hetero nuclear families.

There are "cartoons" at TMAG which are Aboriginal stories spoken by Aboriginal people. My children spent hours watching them over and over again.

Does it need to be books? Storytellers, like those who come to festivals like the Cygnet Folk Festival are incredible.

[Beatrice]

No I don't think it has to be just books, that's just my particular media bias :lol

[JKay]

While browsing i found the SA Reconciliation Week 2011 Education Pack (i'm sure there are others for each state). It's full of education guff, but it does have quite a lot of links and resources in it. I haven't checked out any of them yet, but i'll certainly be having a look. There are activities and what-not suggested also.

http://www.reconciliationsa.org.au/pdf%20and%20docs/2011%20Education%20Pack%20-%20Citizenship%20Let's%20Talk%20Recognition.pdf

[Kris]

I just bought a colouring book written by an Aboriginal woman, has stories and pictures and then a black and white line drawing for children to colour in. I think the author is Nauirua?

I also noticed our copy of Stradbroke Dreaming by Oodgeroo Noonucul (sorry spelling, I'm really tired) - absolutely fantastic. I love it.

[Yiriyinaa]

K What is TMAG? Were those cartoons Aboriginal dreamtime stories? If they were the head animator/cartoon illustrator was yiri's Dad!!

[Yiriyinaa]

And StradbRoke Dreaming is soooo awesome. I still cry when I read it.
I get a lot of books from Magabala too Beatrice. A new release I really LOVE is called 'white blackfulla'.

[Yiriyinaa]

I'd love a copy of the colouring in book - where did u get it k?

[Beatrice]

That one (if you meant White Skin Black Fella?) was one of the ones I just requested the library service buy, Yiriyinaa. Hopefully they will :eager

[Kris]

TMAG - Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Um, colouring in books? From the post office on Whyrallah Road. There were three or four different ones. I just grabbed one at random for the drive.

[JKay]

A friend bought us 'Wurradi, Wondee and The Dancing Brolga's', which we've been reading this week and K loves. It's by a brother and sister, illustrator/author team.

[Belle]

Not exactly off topic, but Dr. Anita Heiss has a blog post on Indigenous Authors. She compiled a list of 100 books as a Black Book Challenge. (There's also some more in the comments)

It's a been awhile since I read the list, but there may be a children's book or two on there. She has other book posts on kids lit too though. (She is very involved in Indigenous Literacy programs)

You might find something there that's relevant.