Aboriginal Culture

What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside those from newly discovered writers of all ages. All of the contributors speak from the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.

The History of Australia: From Indigenous Origins to a Modern Nation Australia is called the “land down under,” but how much do you really know about its past? Did you know that modern Australia started as a British prison colony? Or that for tens of thousands of years before that, Indigenous peoples lived there, building rich cultures and traditions? This book takes you through Australia’s history, from its first inhabitants to the arrival of European settlers to its fight for independence to its current role in world events. Learn about the convicts who built early settlements, the ...

“Both a masterpiece about the universal human condition and a masterpiece of Native American literature. . . . A book everyone should read for the joy and emotion of the language it contains.” — The Paris Review A special 50th anniversary edition of the magnificent Pulitzer...

""A powerful message for all of us. I was hypnotized by the simple truths and spiritual lessons. Read it and tell everyone you know to do the same."" —Wayne Dyer This incredible adventure story—and New York Times bestseller—offers us an opportunity to discover the wisdom of an ancient...

""Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy."" ---Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The Sentence For fans...

This book is a new vision of the most divisive political issue in Australia today. Aboriginal politics are now dominated by demands for reconciliation, self-determination, and acknowledgment of culture. But these concepts – defined and promoted by an urban elite of educated Aboriginal activists – hide the bigger truth that most people of Aboriginal descent today are already integrated into the wider society and are doing well, if belatedly. More importantly, the Aboriginal industry fails to address the needs of the 20 per cent minority of their population who still live in despair.

A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a...

One woman’s story of healing through Aboriginal principles and awakening to her own healing powers Explains principles from the 60,000-year-old Aboriginal culture of Australia that can help create transformation in your life Details her experiences participating in secret women’s...

"Ivan Ertlov's first mystery thriller is dark, bloody and unique. Especially the private detective is completely different from what you might expect and has a crude sense of humour. I rate it 5 out of 5 possible stars!" - The Librarian and her Books "Above all, it is an exciting, gripping near-future thriller with a cleverly placed supernatural touch. A brisk read even for those who have nothing to do with games, an explicit recommendation for readers of mystery, action thrillers and revenge thrillers." - Phantastic Reading "Step down, Jack Reacher, here comes Pete O'Brannon!" - VLP ...

When Detective Senior Constable Sarah Chen finds prominent Aboriginal rights lawyer David Namatjira dead at the bottom of Emily Gap, what appears to be a hiking accident quickly reveals itself as calculated murder. David's death coincides with the systematic ransacking of his Legal Aid office, where crucial files documenting mining company corruption have been stolen. His legal challenges cost Northern Territory Minerals millions while protecting sacred Aboriginal sites from illegal exploration, giving corporate executives powerful motives for eliminating their most effective opponent. But ...

When traditional owner Curtis Brennan is found dead among the sacred granite formations of Karlu Karlu, Detective Senior Constable Ruby Mackenzie expects a straightforward climbing accident investigation in Australia's remote Northern Territory. But climbing chalk on rocks that no Aboriginal person would ever touch tells a different story. Someone has been violating sacred sites for profit, and Curtis died trying to stop them. Ruby's investigation uncovers a thriving illegal tourism operation that has been exploiting Aboriginal culture for years, bringing unauthorized visitors to ceremonial...

When Garnet Raven was three years old, he was taken from his home on an Ojibway Indian reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. Having reached his mid-teens, he escapes at the first available opportunity, only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city. Having skirted the...

Does earth have spirit or soul? This is a question being asked ever more frequently, especially by those interested in the future of the natural world and the development of consciousness. The alchemists said ‘the greater part of the soul is outside the body’, and indigenous cultures have felt that soul or spirit resides in Nature and the physical environment. Such notions have been dismissed by modernity as illusions, but we are beginning to have second thoughts about the animation of the earth. Science and rationality have not taught us how to love or care for the earth, and in the ...

Boomerangs are far more than simple curved sticks; they are an extraordinary example of human ingenuity, blending survival, culture, science, and sport. Their history stretches back tens of thousands of years, from the mammoth-tusk hunting tools of Ice Age Europe to the sophisticated wooden designs of Aboriginal Australia. In Aboriginal society, boomerangs were essential tools for hunting, fishing, digging, and even fire-making, while also serving as canvases for art, ceremonial objects, and symbols of spiritual and cultural identity. The returning boomerang demonstrates a deep ...

The world of the Australian Aborigines is so full of extraordinary force and beauty that the idea of natural miracles, or what we might call magic, can seem quite normal. So natural magic figures very strongly in their stories, and in their lives. However as people are part of nature too, selfishness, greed, jealousy; also love, courage and a sense of humour are readily described in nature just as in men and women.

Recovering from a bad break-up, Abbey travels with her two lifelong friends to Hawaii, where personal challenges, laughter and new love await – in this heartwarming contemporary novel from bestselling author Anita Heiss. Abbey’s ready for a holiday. Between her growing business, her recently...

Near the end of his life, novelist, essayist and poet James Cowan joined fellow author Arthur Versluis in five remarkable conversations on how his journeys into the Australian Outback and his years spent among the Aborigines are indelibly linked with his vision for the reinvigoration of literature and culture through what he terms metaphysical realism. Challenging, wide-ranging, moving, always stimulating, these conversations are indeed timeless.James G. Cowan (1942-2018) was author of numerous books, including the bestseller Mapmaker’s Dream, as well as titles on Australian Aboriginal ...

What if the world's oldest living mythology could teach you something your phone can't? Welcome to 60,000 years of stories that refuse to die. This isn't your university's dusty mythology textbook. This is what happens when a jester crashes the sacred fire and realizes the ancestors have been laughing at our confusion this whole time. Here's what you're getting: A deep dive into Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime that treats these stories like the living, breathing wisdom they are (not museum pieces). You'll meet a Rainbow Serpent who invented consequences, a Sky Father who bounced to the ...

Billabong Nulla-Nulla Steven is an Australian Aboriginal boy with a dream. A dream as powerful as any mans. A future life was calling but before he could step out and seek or grasp for that opportunity, he needed to meet and know his father and mother and why he had been left behind in Wyndham for so long. Left in his grandmother Gilly's care when just a month old he had no Dreamtime stories about his parents. So, when opportunity knocked, he set out to meet them and discover and endeavor to understand their walk down life's path. Venturing all over the Kimberley he meets many who know his ...

Tiki is a God who in the dim long ago helped to build the world, and the whose carved image is now supporting the middle pillar of the house. His eyes of pawa-shell, which once commanded in the Ten Heavens and were full of fire and wisdom, glisten out of the silent twilight; they stare far, far into the Darkness, which Hine-nui-te-po is slowly spreading over the world; Hine-nui-te-po, the Great Mother of Night, who at one time was young and beautiful, and gave Life to Nature.