Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

October 2025

• ISBN: 9781460765531
• ISBN 10: 1460765532
• Imprint: HarperCollins AU
• RRP: $26.99

When I read this, I immediately sent a text to a dear friend, a committed First Nations ally who always strives to teach her class with solid embedded cultural perspectives, that if she only buys one new book to explain Aboriginality, this is the one.

I was so impressed with Rhyhia’s first book Learning Country, for both its text and the stunning artwork, that I knew this one was going to be great. It is more than that!

In terms that children of all ages can understand and to which they will both respond and engage with, Rhyhia takes the reader through a concise but also well-explained background to contemporary Aboriginal life. The text encompasses the importance of Country, traditional learning, family and kinship, songlines, foods both traditional and modern, tools and artefacts, Stolen Generations,, and more.

The whole is paired with Ryhia’s incredible artwork and the motif of the river, water being of vital importance, and particularly so to the songline for Gudanji family, running throughout the pages. The entirety focuses on the importance of story, in whichever way that is told in this age-old culture: art, rocks, songlines, body art, oral histories.

Look carefully at the images floating in the river to help interpret the narrative. Try cooking the beef stew recipe borrowed from the early Chinese arrivals [EDIT: I did this evening after writing this and it’s choice!]. Read the history of Ryhia’s own family as well as that of her nation and her culture.

It is utterly divine through and through and, certainly, is in my Top 5 for this year’s picture books/narrative non-fictions. If I could, I would go higher but it is undoubtedly a 5 ❤️💛🖤💛❤️and an absolute must for your collection, whether library or personal. Always was, always will be.