1. Aboriginal Australians
2. Adventure stories
3. Aurukun (Qld NW Cape York SD54-07)
4. Bush tucker
5. Cape York Peninsula (Qld SC54, SD54, SD55)
6. Cooking
7. Culture
8. Family
9. Hunting and gathering
10. Indigenous knowledge
11. Pigs
12. Social life and customs
13. Storytelling
14. Wik Mungkan people (Y57) (Qld SD54-07)

In this picture book, a young boy of around nine years of age from the Aboriginal community at Aurukun in Far North Queensland recounts the story of a camping and hunting trip. One weekend, he and a large multi-generational family group head into the bush where they engage in a variety of activities: searching for sugarbag honey; making tea over a fire; looking for bush berries and roots; hunting for wild pigs and building a ground oven to cook the meat.

As well as sharing the delights of the family’s weekend, author Jeanie Adams portrays aspects of bush life in detail that some readers may find confronting. The narrator’s younger sister kills a snake with a stick early in the story. His uncle shoots a wild pig with a gun and his father finishes it off with a spear, while he and another young boy look on. ‘Pigs and Honey’ is a celebration of Aboriginal knowledge and family togetherness, enhanced by evocative illustrations of the characters in the story and the nature that surrounds them.

Jeanie Adams is a sociologist and teacher, who spent around eight years living in the Aboriginal community at Aurukun. ‘Pigs and Honey’ is one of two books she has written and illustrated about the community. The other is ‘Going for Oysters’. Both books have been endorsed by the Aurukun community and translated into Wik-Mungkan, one of their major languages.

1. Hunting for Sugarbags. ABC Rural. https://www.facebook.com/ABCRural/videos/1985153744831412/
2. Aurukun Shire Council. http://www.aurukun.qld.gov.au/
3. Feral Pig. Business Queensland, Queensland Government. https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry/agriculture/land-management/health-pests-weeds-diseases/pests/invasive-animals/restricted/feral-pig
4. Queensland Government, Queensland Health. Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foods. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/428288/jarjums-sect3-less3.pdf