‘Our Island’ is a picture book collaboration by the children of Gununa with authors and illustrators Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey. The book showcases the unique natural beauty of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, which has been occupied by the traditional owners, the Lardil people, for thousands of years. Gununa is a community in the southwest of the island.
The landscape format provides scope for wide background vistas of sky, earth, beach and sea, populated with some of the island’s flora and fauna, including dugongs, brolgas, fruit bats and mangroves. The Morning Glory, the Gulf of Carpentaria’s rare roll-like cloud formation, is also featured. Each gloriously colourful double spread (or two large illustrations side by side) was created by the children using wax crayons and food dye wash.
Text is minimal on each spread but particularly rich in action verbs: turtles glide, sharks patrol and brolgas bow and sway. Adjectives sprinkled throughout the text draw attention to the colours and feel of the landscape. The copyright page contains information about Mornington Island and credits all the children of Gununa by name. A glossary of Lardil words and information about how the book came to be are included in the back matter.
Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey are both well-known, multi-award-winning Australian authors and illustrators.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
