Selecting Books for Aboriginal Children

Extract

This article stems from several requests by teachers and librarians, following our April article (Vol. 6 No. 2) for information about books that are popular with Aboriginal children who use the facilities of the Oodnadatta School library.

In our two and a half years of operating this library, we have gained a reasonably clear insight into the likes and dislikes of our readers. While the supply of lists is useful because, obviously, books successful in one libarary are usually popular in another library, the librarian must take into account the local factors which will probably influence the type of book the borrower will favour. While I don’t wish to labour this point for the readers who may be well aware of these factors, there are several people who have written to me, who would be interested.

Most factors are inter-related and readily fit the socioeconomic situation of the borrower. For example, the Aboriginal people of Oodnadatta are very much fringe dwellers with respect to western society, although they easily outnumber the non-Aboriginal members of the community. Their mother tongue is a version of Pitjantjatjara (Yankuntjatjara), though most speak sufficient English to be able to communicate with Europeans. The school teaches only in English with an emphasis, in the lower classes, on standardizing grammar, using the Queensland Van Leer Foundation Language Project.