Review of "Wanari’s Dreamtime," by Dale Roberts and Ainslie Roberts

Review of

Wanari’s Dreamtime, by Dale Roberts and Ainslie Roberts ISBN 1875168044

Five out of five stars

 This book of legends of the Australian aborigine people is presented in a delightful form, where the elder male teaches the boy by a combination of observation and doing. Wanari is an Aboriginal boy that is called “Dusty.” His family lives on a cattle station in Central Australia and his uncle lives and works there as well.

 It is a slack time, so carrying few possessions and wearing nothing, the two of them engage in a brief walkabout, where they move away from the cattle station and survive living in the bush. Experienced in Aboriginal folklore as well as the ways of the wilderness, the uncle passes along the legends and myths of the native Australians while he is obtaining their food. The legends of how the world came to be the way it is and how humans are supposed to interact with their natural world are recited.

 It is very much a rite of passage from youth to adulthood, as Wanari is told stories that have been orally passed down for generations and he will be expected to pass on to his descendants. The reader learns a great deal about how the Aborigine people viewed the origin of the world and their place in it. Readers will also gain insight into how the Aborigine manage to survive in an environment that seems so hostile to humans. This is a great book for multicultural classes as the emphasis is on a people not often covered in classrooms outside Australia.