The purpose of this paper is to examine the discourse of Aboriginal reviewers to discover what they regard as important ideas to be resisted and contested. By means of documentary analysis of their book reviews this paper brings into focus the language which legitimises action against Aborigines. It is argued that disabling prejudice in print serves broader social functions, particularly the justification for the status devaluation of Aboriginal Australians. However, there is room for optimism in the realisation that Aborigines are gaining the skill to engage in ideology critique, and the emergence of socially critical literature. Throughout this paper teachers and librarians will find criteria for selecting books for (rather than against) Aborigines, while the appendices list resources according to the recommendations of Aboriginal reviewers.

The La Grange Aboriginal Language Program grew out of a strongly expressed need at our first school council meeting earlier this year [1985]. The Bidyadanga Community Aboriginal Council Chairman, Mr Jack Mulardy, and Vice-Chairman, Mr John Dodo, wanted an Aboriginal language program for some time, as they are very concerned that their people’s language will be forgotten.

I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to learn last month that a Year 9 Aboriginal student, whom I have taught since he arrived at high school last year, had broken into the Home Economics section of his local primary school and embarked on a spree of damage and destruction. What could have possessed this lad who can be friendly, helpful and positively trouble free for much of the time at school, to follow such a course of seemingly unprovoked and senseless action. My school, Murgon State High School, frequently plays host to delinquent behaviour by both Aboriginal and European descent students. In the past 16 months I have been physically threatened, sworn at and deliberately disobeyed. Fortunately for my self-respect’s sake, I have not been alone in receiving this tirade of abuse and disrespect. We have 120 Aborigines in a school of 480, and delinquent behaviour is not peculiar to either group.

There can be no ethnic group in Australia that displays as much diversity as the Australian Aborigines. Their lifestyles range from hunting and gathering in the most remote corners of Australia, through a more settled existence in outback country towns and on the fringes of towns and cities, to an ongoing struggle to survive in the hearts of Australia’s biggest cities. What is it that unites all Aboriginal people regardless of where they live? Many people, white Australians especially, seem to think that it is the racial characteristics, skin colour and “blood”, which makes an Aborigine. To these people, the darker a person’s skin is, the more Aboriginal they are. When this sort of thinking predominates, as it so often does, many Aboriginal people start finding themselves robbed of their Aboriginality. People tell them that they are only half or a quarter Aborigine, or a “part Aborigine”.

A dramatic increase in the number of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders undertaking teacher education courses in Colleges of Advanced Education and Universities has occurred over the past ten years. In 1976 it was estimated that there were approximately 59 Aboriginal Teacher Education students throughout Australia (Anderson § Vevoorn, 1983:122). Today, in one institution alone - James Cook University - there are almost double this number. It is estimated that there were approximately 400 Aboriginal/Islander student teachers in 1985.

Some members of the Central Queensland Aboriginal Corporation for Cultural Activities recently attended an in-service seminar. The focus of the seminar was on the teaching of Aboriginal students. The group identified a number of concerns relating to the participation of resource people in the classroom. These matters are given wider circulation in the interests of making more effective use of the valuable expertise which is available in the Aboriginal community.

Perhaps the key concept amongst the list of concerns is that of empathy with the Aboriginal visitors to the classroom. A clear understanding of the skills, life experience and the guest speakers preferred means of relating to children will help to ensure a productive and satisfying outcome both for the speaker and the students.