1. Animals
2. Art, Aboriginal Australian
3. Bilingual books
4. Birds
5. Bush tucker
6. Country
7. Culture
8. Environment
9. Fish
10. Health
11. Indigenous knowledge
12. Insects
13. Kimberley region (W.A.)
14. Marine animals
15. Rain and rainfall
16. Seasons
17. Visual literacy
18. Weather
19. Yawuru people (K1) (WA SE 51-10) 

For the Yawuru people the seasons is not time or date specific. They learn from Country, it tells them when they have arrived by ‘what we feel, see, taste, smell and hear’. The book outlines six seasons each recognisable by changes in the weather, the arrival of particular animals such as flying foxes or whales or the blooming of certain plants.

The different seasons are shown by the opening phrase ‘Country tells us when…’ and a series of illustrations and words leads into the season’s name ‘we spot the yari (humpback whale) travelling up the coast to have her babies. It’s Barrgana time.’

The Yawuru people are the traditional owners of the lands and waters in and around Rubibi (Broome) in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The book inspiration for the book is the need to share and teach important Cultural knowledge and Language in a story that would both engage and inform the younger generations

The artwork layers the distinctive seasonal colours of the Kimberley trough the medium of block printing. Insects, birds, animals and marine creatures as well as plants against the landscape of this unique country. The endpapers are particularly notable with their silhouettes of the fauna set against an ochre coloured background, a colour prominent in the region.

At the back is a QR code that allows readers to hear the text in English and Yawuru.

Creators, Tsheena Cooper, Mary Dann, Dalisa Pigram-Ross and Sheree Ford are members of the Yawuru community and are teachers at Cable Beach Primary School in Broome.

“Country tells us when …’ is a CBCA 2024 Notable book.

1.  Australia Post/Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Teaching notes by Shelley Ware for ‘Country calls us when…’ (Yawuru edition) https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/country-tells-us-when-teacher-guide-and-lesson-plans.pdf
2. Celebrating ‘Country Tells Us when… in Community’ Book launch Broome 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht_vSqu_IeY
3. Western Australia Department of Education News 16 May 2023. ‘A team of educators have written a Yawuru children’s picture book to help preserve language and culture for generations to come.’ https://www.education.wa.edu.au/news/educators-write-yawuru-picture-book
4. Bureau of Meteorology. Indigenous Weather Knowledge – Yawuru Country http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/yawuru.shtml