The traditional and the new come together in the new book from Canberra preschool teacher Adam Duncan and illustrated by Paul Lalo, Bunyip and the Stars, launched today, Friday 28 April at the National Museum of Australia (NMA).
The book is the first of five in a series commissioned by the NMA, inspired by the play areas in the Museum’s Tim and Gina Fairfax Discovery Centre. The series will be printed by National Museum of Australia Press and released over the next few years.
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Debuting his first children’s book, Mr Duncan developed the story with the preschool children he teaches at the University of Canberra Wiradjuri Preschool and Child Care Centre in Bruce. Creating stories together is a staple part of the education curriculum, often giving the children the bare bones of a story and encouraging them to explore the subject, in this case, stars.
“As a way of incorporating Indigenous perspectives and Indigenous knowledge … I sat down and gave them a bit of a narrative structure to start with and the more they questioned, and the more they contributed to the conversation about the story, the more developed,” he says.
The Bunyip and the Stars tells the story of the importance of the connection between country and family. Ngariin (Big Sister) has to use her knowledge of her Country, the bushlands and mob stories to find Wumbirr (Little Brother) who has been taken by the bunyip.
Mr Duncan says that a Bunyip is most recognised as a monster that lives in billabongs and freshwater lakes in the interior of Australia. They are known for causing mayhem and snatching livestock and people who are swimming when they shouldn’t be.
“They live under the water and snatch people up; they’ve been described in a lot of different ways depending on the story being told. They’re depicted as sea serpent-like creatures but typically they are bestial creatures,” he says.
Stars children’s book. Supplied NMA
The bunyip has deep roots in Indigenous storytelling; it is a quintessentially Australian creature whose stories continued after settlement and have been told by non-Indigenous storytellers, Mr Duncan says. Growing up, the author didn’t have any traditional knowledge, and says he learnt storytelling from conventional European literature.
“I feel like the traditional stories were something that my family were unfortunate enough to have not had, but I had very strong cultural role models in that my father and my grandparents were very active community members,” he says.
Writing the book with his own words and storyline with a creature present in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian folklore, Mr Duncan hopes to help other Indigenous people in his position engage with their culture.
“Engaging more with the Aboriginal ways of knowing and being is often maybe an overused phrase, especially in the education space. But I think in this case constructing the story, writing it, and doing it in a way that is similar to the ways that Aboriginal stories have been developed and used is really important because it is the way I’m kind of coping with not having my traditional stories,” says Mr Duncan.
Bunyip and the Stars by Adam Duncan and Paul Lalo is available at nma.gov.au
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