Australians All – A History of Growing Up from the Ice Age to the Apology

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       July 4, 2013

 

Author  Nadia Wheatley Illus: Ken Searle

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-74114-637-0
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

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“In the beginning there was the Law and the law was held in the balance of the land.” And so begins perhaps the only comprehensive collection of stories about the children who shaped the country which is known today as Australia; from the first Aboriginal settlers to the refuges who still flock to Australia’s shores in the hope of a better life.

The exact time the Aboriginal people, the original settlers, arrived and remained in this country is reasonably hard to define. What is known is they travelled as family, with each member of that group contributing to the welfare of their people and leaving their mark far and wide across the continent. Children left their handprints, alongside those of adults on the walls of caves and rocks, as children have done throughout the millenniums.

From the first days of European settlement in Australia children have played a significant part in development of the country, although little has been documented on their contribution until now.

In this detailed and heat warming look back through the annuls of time, Wheatley has complied an immense collection of stories detailing their lives and contributions too a developing and still developing nation.

The introduction details much on the Aboriginal way of life, archaeological details and climate change created with the coming and leaving of the Ice Age and the impact it had on the civilizations of the time. The coming of the European settlers is also detailed in a more social context. Looking at the life in Social and Industrial revolution taking place in Britain and the effect it had on the children of that Nation.

Once this scene has been set Wheatly then takes us on a social and personal journey through the eyes of the children who came to Australia, their contributions to the future generations and their legacies left in an ever changing world.

Each of the social aspects of life such as Sunday School, Marriage, Reading and Writing, the Gold Rush, War, Farming, The Great Depression, Building the Railways, New Arrivals, The political years if the 1970’s  and so much more are illustrated by the stories of the children who were there all the way.

Often mistreated, abused and always misrepresented they now have a voice and that voice is a powerful one which will go on being heard as their country, called Australia, keeps changing and evolving.

Australians All makes fascinating reading as I, like many people had no idea that children had been such a huge part in the development of this Country as so little has ever been written on their amazing fortitude and contributions.

 The final chapters in this collection of stories conclude with what happened to the children whose stories fill the pages. It is lovely to read what became of them, and the marks they have left on and are making, in Australian society today.

The final word is from the Author on what motived her to take up the challenge of a work of this calibre, which in itself is a warm and lovely way to conclude her research into the other, equally as powerful side of Australian history which until now has been largely overlooked, that of the children of Australia, past and present.