The back jacket cover captures the essence of this book perfectly: ‘A celebration of Indigenous legends past and present. A Rallying call to emerging generations forging their own paths.’ The endpapers feature head and shoulder portraits of 17 well known celebrities. Double page spreads feature these people as children and with one of their singular achievements. For example, ‘I’m the world champ in ’68, that’s me – I’m Lionel Rose.’ The final page includes a short statement about each person along with their major achievements.
The landscape format is ideal for singling out a particular achievement with two-three individuals featured, followed by the text refrain, ‘My history is my strength, my future is my own. My community is a part of me, it’s my time, my heartbeat’. These words ‘shout’ from the page in very large font set against a background of Aboriginal motifs. The final double page ends with, ‘Our history is our strength, our future is our own. We are all our community, it’s our time, we’re home’.
Adam Briggs says that this story is a ‘way to teach kids about Indigenous representation, without being super-duper heavy-handed about it’. The book is inspired by song lyrics that Briggs wrote for his song, ‘The Children Came Back’, which is a sequel to Archie Roach’s landmark song, ‘Took the Children Away’, also made into a book for older young people and featured in this Resource.
Adam Briggs is an Australian comedian, rapper, lyricist, hip-hop artist, writer, record label owner and actor. He is a proud Indigenous Australian of the Yorta Yorta people. Rachael Sarra is a Murri girl from Brisbane.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
