Hardie Grant Australia
June 2020
ISBN: 9781741177176
Imprint: Hardie Grant Explore
RRP: $26.99
Four years after its release, and as I’ve just created a presentation for YABBA’s virtual author’s program on Thomas Mayo, it seems like a great time to include this one in this year’s NAIDOC collation.
Thomas wrote his first book, Finding the Heart of the Nation – the Journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth following the signing of the Uluru Statement, in which he participated. He was also the trustee who took the Statement on an 18 month tour of the country building connections and understandings in communities, as we strive to achieve a Voice and Reconciliation.
After the success of the first book, he went on to write others and this one for children is a way of educating our Smalls [who really are the ones who see very clearly what needs to be done in my experience] on the reasons for the Statement and the way forward.
At the time of its release I was not yet reviewing for HG but I immediately bought it for our library and began sharing it across all our year levels, both primary and secondary. It puts the intent of the Statement and the purpose behind the advocacy for Treaty and Voice in the simplest of terms, readily understood by even the youngest kiddos.
We know we still have a way to go, but we won’t give up. Buy it, read it, share it and help our First Nations people achieve what is long overdue.
Just So Stories 
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