Sea Country
Aunty Patsy Cameron (author)
Lisa Kennedy (illustrator)
Magabala Books, $24.99
This children’s book has a gloriously languid feel – awash with sensual detail. From bush tucker, to seasonal awareness, to the naming of nature in the local Aboriginal language, to showing which fish and shellfish were most abundant in the area, we learn of island life as lived by the author growing up on Flinders Island.
“My people are proud, strong people. We are the descendants of Mannelargenna of the Pairrrebeenne / Trawlwoolway clan,” Aunty Patsy Cameron writes to introduce her generous tale of the environment and traditions that have shaped her life and kin.
Whether fishing in wooden dinghies with long oars, collecting shells to string into necklaces, or imagining mutton birds diving deep and talking to whales, Cameron and her people clearly connected to Country in meaningful and sustainable ways. “We were free to hear Country speaking to us,” she writes “to watch for signs from Country”.
Lisa Kennedy, who is a descendant of the coastal Pairebeenne/Trawlwoolway clan in North East Tasmania, has illustrated the story in a way that shows her deep appreciation for Cameron’s story and the Bass Strait island on which it unfolds. Her love of the sea and marine life is also apparent.
All of the illustrations are detailed, warm and welcoming. My favourite shows vivid purple clouds, lino cut trees and mustard and black feathers. It is accompanied by the text, “When the black cockatoos came down from the mountains, we knew it would rain, and the winds would blow from the north-west.”
Little touches, such as the way the words “rice shells, toothies, black crows, penguins, mairreeners, oat shells, gull shells” are formatted in a wavy line to mirror how the objects will be threaded onto string for necklaces, show extra attention to detail that matters.
Sea Country is a valuable addition to a growing suite of place-based children’s picture books that celebrate and illuminate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and environmental sustainability.
When Cameron writes that the paper nautilus shells “smelled like the deepest ocean”, I’m there on the sand beside her eager to see more, feel more, learn and listen.
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books@ssh.com.au
