Originally written in the 1920s by David Unaipon. The original work was edited by W. Ramsay Smith and published in 1930 credited to W. Ramsay Smith as Myths & Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, without acknowledgement of Unaipon's authorship. Shoemaker and Muecke republished it in 2001 under Unaipon's name and original title.
AustLit uses the original Unaipon title as the main title showing Ramsay Smith's title as an alternative title on those editions published prior to the restitution edition.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5). Possibly an extension Year 9 class.
Themes
Aboriginality, Australia, Australian identity, Christianity, Indigenous, Myths and Legends
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Intercultural understanding, Literacy
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Sustainability
Originally written in the 1920s by David Unaipon. The original work was edited by W. Ramsay Smith and published in 1930 credited to W. Ramsay Smith as Myths & Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, without acknowledgement of Unaipon's authorship. Shoemaker and Muecke republished it in 2001 under Unaipon's name and original title.
AustLit uses the original Unaipon title as the main title showing Ramsay Smith's title as an alternative title on those editions published prior to the restitution edition.
'This is a story belonging to the Murrumbidgee River tribe, and they associate this locality as the first settled home of the Gherawhar (Goanna...) after leaving their temporary home at Shoalhaven, and before...to other parts of Australia. When they occupied this country there was no flowing Murrumbidgee River. The only river then was the... which was formed by the ancient Pendie, a fish commonly called the Murray Cod.' (David Unaipon, 1924-25)
Benjamin Miller describes this story in the following way: 'a creation story about a Water Spirit who desires to enter the material world. A Lyre Bird, who is adept at singing the songs of other animals, is asked by a spirit to sing into a stream. After much beautiful singing a Being emerges from the water. The Lyre Bird names the Being "Gool lun naga, a son of the clear running stream of water"'.
Source: Benjamin Miller, 'David Unaipon's Style of Subversion: Performativity and Becoming in "Gool Lun Naga (Green Frog)"', JASAL Special Issue (2008):84.
The author talks about the hunting practices of the Australian Aboriginals.
A story about the tortoise and his conflict with the Eaglehawk.
The author talks about the how the Australian Aboriginals have a legend that explains natural phenomena.
The story of two sisters who fall in love with the same boy.
The story of a man called The Mar Kar Ree and his trail of looking for a wife.
The author talks about the customs,rituals, and laws of marriage between men and women in Australian Aboriginal societies.
In a comparison to the biblical stories of the forces of good and evil, the author presents this story of crow from the Narrinyur people, an Aboriginal representation of good and evil which has played an important part in their traditions and legends.
'Narroondarie is the name of one of the many good men that were sent among the various tribes of the Australian Aborigines...' (David Unaipon, 1924-25)
More Australian Legendary Tales
London
Melbourne
:
David Nutt
Melville, Mullen and Slade
,
1898
Z180902
1898
selected work
prose
Indigenous story
Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines
1924-1925
6043804
1924
single work
prose
Indigenous story
This manuscript contains the original works of David Unaipon's Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines
Myths & Legends of the Australian Aboriginals
Alice Bolingbroke Woodward
(illustrator),
W. Ramsay Smith
,
London
:
Harrap
,
1930
6080162
1930
selected work
prose
dreaming story
This 1930s publication describes the legends of the Australian Aborigines located in the southeast corner of Australia near the Murray River. It covers a range of narratives from the creation stories to those of witchcraft, and explanations of landmarks. (Source: Preface).
Australian Legendary Tales
Henrietta Drake-Brockman
(editor),
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1953
Z917812
1953
selected work
prose
essay
Indigenous story
Australian Legends
Osutoraria densetsu
Tokyo
:
Oseania Shuppansha
,
1985
Z900616
1985
selected work
short story
Indigenous story
This book is an illustrated edition comprising six stories from W. Ramsay Smith's 1930 edition of Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines.
When Mary Ann Hughes complained in 1998 that critics were preoccupied with the process of editorial collaboration that shaped Australian Aboriginal texts, she argued that this focus led to the neglect of the literary merit of the work. While the collaboration of mainstream writers with editors primarily went unremarked, “in the case of an Aboriginal writer, the role of the editor in constructing the work is the issue which most readily springs to the fore.” Hughes remarked upon the then decade-long critical determination to materialize the traditionally invisible craft of editing. This critical preoccupation ran parallel with the second wave of Aboriginal life writing (Brewster, 44), which witnessed the transformation of Aboriginal publishing from marginal to mainstream, reaching beyond the local to global audiences (Haag, 12). The exponential increase in the publication of Aboriginal life writing was accompanied by the politicization of publication processes, including coproduction, that have conventionally been kept from public view. (Introduction)
