2.2 - The Art of Sally Morgan, Intro by Jill Milroy, 1996

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

The Art of Sally Morgan, Intro by Jill Milroy, 1996

This is a compilation of Sally Morgan's art from the period 1986 to 1995. Her art is a beautiful example of contemporary Aboriginal art. The art is two dimensional and uses a bold palette of mostly primary colours. She works mostly in acrylics or screen printing.

Some of her pictures are obviously political, such as *Another Story* (1988) which shows a squatter's house at the top, with the bones of Aboriginal people in the ground. But, when you look at them thoughtfully, they all deal with the distribution of power in some way (surely the most meaningful way of considering politics). Take *Dancing Women* (1988), a black and white print of dancing women with stars. The image of women together recurs in her work, referring to her own female-headed family and her belief in the strength of Aboriginal women in maintaining Aboriginal culture.

Really beautiful art that considers contemporary Aboriginal and non-Indigenous issues in Australia.

2.3 - Animals: An Indigenous First Discovery Book, 2.4 - Aussie Twos Like To

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

2.3 - Animals: An Indigenous First Discovery Book, artwork by Debbie Austin (2008)

The series was created to help raise awareness of the imortance of using Australian Indigenous symbols to teach stories to the young of our culture. This one, obviously, focuses on animals. Each page shows one symbol and there is a legend at the end so you can translate them.

My toddler was not terribly impressed - possibly she viewed it as too childish as there was no text.

2.4 - Aussie Twos Like To, Magabala Books (no date)

This follows on from Magabala Books’ *Aussie Toddlers Can*. It’s a collection of pictures of kids playing - what I like most about it is the range of skin tones the kids have.

It was less successful with my daughter than the toddler book, perhaps because she now feels too old for a book without text.