In this collection, Maisie (Yarrcali) Barlow tells six Rainforest Dreamtime Stories as one of the few surviving elders of the Jirrbal people of Ravenshoe, Far North Queensland. The stories she tells are unique in that they reflect a lifestyle which arose from living in the rainforests of the Far North. Hence, the Jirrbalangan developed hunting and gathering techniques which were specific to the rainforest habitat. For example, tree-climbing was a necessary skill mastered by only a few.
These are cautionary tales about the need to be kind and offer help to others, to be obedient, and to learn to share. They are also ‘Creation’ or ‘Dreamtime’ stories about how things have come to be in nature. At the end there is a useful key translating Jirrbal words into English and vice versa.
The final part of this collection contains a series of stories by Maisie about growing up in the Ravenshoe area. These demonstrate the values she learned from her parents and grandparents and her view of a happy and wholesome life she experienced as a child. They also reveal the racism inherent in a white-dominated society, which would not allow her to attend the local school. Maisie was sent as a seven-year-old to work as a nurse and domestic servant on the cattle station Wairuna, where she spent eight years described as happy. The figurative images by award-winning artist Michael (Boiyool) Anning throughout the work and on the endpapers further enhance this evocative collection of stories.
Maisie Yarrcali Barlow is an Elder and storyteller from Northern Queensland. She belongs to the Jirrbal people. Michael Boiyool Anning is an illustrator and craftsperson from the coastal area of north Queensland and belongs to the Nyudgunji people. In 1998, Boiyool was the first person from Queensland to receive a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Award in the Northern Territory. (AustLit entries on these creators)
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
