Introduction Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest culture on Earth. This Children’s book uses Aboriginal stories (which are tens of thousands of years old) to learn what we can about how we can get along together. The Dreamtime was a time when the Aboriginal Ancestors (spirits, and the earliest people and animals) made the earth the way we find it today. These Dreamtime stories tell us what the Aboriginal Ancestors did, but they also tell us the way people and the spirits, and sometimes the animals, behaved toward each other. This book is full of interesting Aboriginal stories. After each story it asks some questions that the reader can think about. The author has written what he thinks. You may not agree. Have a think about these questions, and what you decide will be treasures you have made for yourself.

Saxby Pridmore

S.Pridmore@utas.edu.au

Dedication Isaac and Dempsey McNeil, Tom McGrath, Isabel Dale and Imogen Fasnacht

Contents Front material 1 1. The Sun Goddess brings life to the world 4 2. The shape of the animals 6 3. The creation of Man 8 4. The flowers 10 5. Marmoo’s insects 12 6. The first corroboree and initiation 15 7. The Great Spirit and his wives 19 8. The Land of Women 21 9. The Kookaburra laughs at dawn 24 10. The Blue Fish and the moon 26 11. The Seven Sisters 30 12. The Kangaroo and the Wombat 32 13. The Platypus 34 14. The Mallee bird 36 15. The digging bone 38 16. The Whowhie 40 17. The twins 42 18. The crying boy and the Rainbow Serpent 45 19. The Topknot pigeon 47 20. The Spider and the yellow Caterpillar 50 21. How the Koala lost his tail 52 22. Kangaroo gets a pouch 54 23. Uldanami becomes the Curlew 56 24. Kondole becomes the Whale 58 25. Eagle and the Crow 60 26. The battle at Yumurrpa 63 27. Mopoke and the Moon 65 28. Jampijinpa and his sons 68 29. How Platypus was born 70 30. The caterpillar prospered 72 31. The turtle 74 32. Deereeree and the rainbow 76 33. The fishing net 78 34. Bullana became the Gymea plant 80 35. The young brolga 82 Ownership and Bibliography 84