Magabala Books

Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe & Figaro and Rumba and the Crocodile Cafe by Anna Fienberg

May 2013, no. 351

Animals and friends are a perennial subject in children’s literature, and the junior novels and series books reviewed here highlight those interests. Most of these titles, however, are also notable because they are told with humour, even whilst exposing the anxieties of children.

Fog a Dox (Magabala Books, $19.95 pb, 111 pp, 9781921248559) is a new novel for primary-aged children by esteemed Indigenous writer Bruce Pascoe. The intriguing title springs from fox cub Fog, one of three pups rescued by ‘tree feller’ Albert Cutts and reared by his dingo-cross dog, Brim. Fog’s vixen sisters leave when they are old enough to survive on their own, but Fog stays, balancing his fox instincts with learned dog behaviour; Albert describes him as a ‘dox’.

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The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe: A History of Aboriginal Involvement with the World Game by John Maynard

by Bernard Whimpress •

June 2012, no. 342

Bernard Whimpress reviews 'The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe: A History of Aboriginal Involvement with the World Game' by John Maynard

Communities, extended family connections, and role models have been keys to Aboriginal participation in Australian sport. Other factors – racist exclusion among them – have limited the appearance of Indigenous athletes in professional running and boxing. The high proportion of Aboriginal footballers now playing in the Australian Football League and both rugby codes inevitably begs the question of absences in other major sports.

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Eddie’s Country: Why did Eddie Murray die? by Simon Luckhurst

by Sonja Kurtzer •

June-July 2006, no. 282

Sonja Kurtzer reviews ‘Eddie’s Country: Why did Eddie Murray die?’ by Simon Luckhurst

It is painful to read Eddie’s Country, a book that takes the reader beyond the formality, the statistics and the mind-numbing complexity of the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody held between 1987 and 1990. Instead, we are called to bear witness to the frustration and grief endured by one family as it sought answers to questions arising from the unexpected death, in police custody, of Eddie Murray.

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Emerarra: A Man of Merarra by Morndi Munro/Mary Anne Jebb

by Rosemary O’Grady •

November 1997, no. 196

Rosemary O’Grady reviews 'Emerarra: A Man of Merarra' edited by Morndi Munro/Mary Anne Jebb

Merarra is the local name for the land near Walcott Inlet in the far north-west region of Western Australia where saltwater meets freshwater, coastland meets inland. And the ‘man from Merarra’ was the last ‘full’ speaker of the local, Unggumi language, a senior lawman and famous Kimberley stockman called Billy Munro, or, in his native tongue, Morndi.

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