Everyone is excited they are going to the Finke Desert race. They really want to see the motor bikes roaring past, kicking up huge clouds of red dust. But oh no the Toyota is full so we sneak up on top of the car where we can’t be seen. When they reach the Stuart highway there’s too much traffic and they are going to be late. Aunty turns off to take the shortcut and they head off weaving through the tjanpi (native grasses), bouncing over the rocky terrain and through the boggy mud. They ‘bum-bum-bum-bump along the bush track’ finally arriving late but in time for the night-time entertainment. The next day they see the race vehicles zooming past and it’s a rikina (awesome) day.
This colourful and humorous adventure story is told in a plural first-person voice. The story was developed during a 2021 StoryWeek Illustration workshop with children’s book illustrator Craig Smith and based on an original story by him.
The artwork, created by students of Ernabella Anangu School, is brightly coloured and very representative of the colours of the Central Australian landscape. The inclusion of various perspectives adds greatly to the humour and sense of adventure. Readers will really feel themselves bouncing along a bush track. The endpapers bring a real sense of the colour and excitement of the Finke Desert race.
Ernabella Anangu School is in the Ernabella, or Pukatja, community in the eastern Musgrave Ranges, west of the Stuart Highway. It is situated approximately 440 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs and just south of the Northern Territory border.
The book acknowledges the assistance and inspiration given by Casey Collins and Hannah Battersby to the students of Ernabella Anangu School in the creation of this book.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
