1. Arnhem Land (N.T.)
2. Dreaming
3. Dreams
4. Literary devices
5. Maningrida (Central Arnhem Land NT SD53-02)
6. Stories and motifs
7. Water sources

In this Dreaming, wish come true story, an Aboriginal dream child longs to find her natural parents. She sets off downstream in a coneshell after an elder sees an island off the coast of Maningrida in a dream. She arrives at Djomi, a sacred waterhole where the resident water spirit chooses a young couple with no children to be the dream child’s parents. This, readers discover, is how she comes to live in the real world in Maningrida. This brief picture book text features lyrical phrasing and evocative strong imagery in both words and images. The full-page illustrations are imbued with warmth and colour and feature characters and setting in a naïve style set against a natural backdrop of sand, sea and sky.

The author Christopher Fry is a Burrara man and spiritual elder from Maningrida on the coast of central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Illustrator Delphine Sarago-Kendrick is a descendant of the Yidinji and Jirrbal people of far north Queensland.

1. West Arnhem Regional Council. ‘Maningrida’ https://www.westarnhem.nt.gov.au/our-communities/maningrida
2. Paulson, Uncle Graham. Australians Together. ‘Aboriginal spirituality’. https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/indigenous-culture/aboriginal-spirituality/