Histórias e contos infantis escritos por autores e ilustradores aborígenes e ilhéus do Estreito de Torres são divertidas ou tristes, profundas ou leves e também alegres.
Ambelin Kwaymullina é uma escritora e ilustradora aborígene, do grupo Palyku.
Ela diz que a melhor maneira de aprender e entender os povos indígenas da Austrália é lendo os seus contos, escritos na sua própria voz:
"People are very aware now that in the past there's been a lot of disrespectful learning and that they want a respectful way to connect. The best and the easiest way is to start connecting with Indigenous stories because stories that had been told by Indigenous people about Indigenous people are inherently in respectful space. It means Indigenous people have chosen what information they want to put in the public domain and they are telling these stories in their own voice. So I think that thesenarrative spaces are incredible spaces for people to come together."
Estes livros são obras de arte, filosofia, cultura, história e linguagem, que calam fundo tanto nas crianças como nos adultos:
"Books for example like Maralinga which was done by the Anangu people with Christobel Mattingley, is a book which is very much an art book and a history book, and a culture book as it is a picture book. So it captures a lot within those pages. There is other picture books that are the same, so books like Down the Hole, which is published by IAD Press, which is a stolen generation story, and Tjarany Roughtail, which was published by Magabala books, which contains dreaming stories as well as kinship maps and cultural information, are just the most incredible cultural and historical tones captured in that story book."
Ambelin Kwaymullina, citando clássicos da literatura aborigene infantil, como Maralinga, Down the Hole e Tjarany Roughtail.
Para saber mais sobre povos indígenas da Austrália, vá ao www.sbs.com.au/topics/walk-with-us
Campanha #WalkWithUs, da Rádio SBS.
