Ubby’s Underdogs: A Transformative Vision of Australian Community

Authors

  • Clare Bradford Deakin University, Australia
  • Catherine Sly Deakin University, Australia
  • Xu Daozhi University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2016vol24no1art1112

Keywords:

Aboriginal authors of Australia, race in Australia, Magabala Books, graphic novels, Ubby’s Underdogs, carnivalesque, Brenton E McKenna, multi-ethnic characters, polyglot voices

Abstract

In Black Words White Page (2004), his seminal study of Aboriginal cultural production in Australia, Adam Shoemaker notes that ‘when Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s first collection of poetry appeared in print in 1964, a new phase of cultural communication began in Australia’ (2004, p. 5). The ‘new phase’ to which Shoemaker refers pertains to the many plays, collections of poetry and novels by Aboriginal authors published between 1964 and 1988 and directed to Australian and international audiences. Flying under the radar of scholarly attention, Aboriginal authors and artists also produced significant numbers of children’s books during this time, including Wilf Reeves and Olga Miller’s The Legends of Moonie Jarl, published by Jacaranda Press in 1964 (see O’Conor 2007), Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s Stradbroke Dreamtime (1972), and the picture books of Dick Roughsey and many other Aboriginal authors and artists (see Bradford 2001, pp. 159-90).

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Author Biographies

  • Clare Bradford, Deakin University, Australia

    Clare Bradford is Emeritus Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne. Her books include Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children’s Literature (2001), Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children’s Literature (2007), New World Orders in Contemporary Children’s Literature: Utopian Transformations (2009) (with Mallan, Stephens and McCallum); and The Middle Ages in Children’s Literature (2015). From 2007 to 2011 Clare was President of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities.

  • Catherine Sly, Deakin University, Australia

    Cathy Sly is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University.  Currently she is researching notions of narrativity in graphic novels, with a particular focus on Australian graphic novels for children and young adults.  Her research interests include narratology, visual literacy, and multimodal storytelling.  She has taught English, Drama and History in NSW Department of Education high schools and has worked as a writer, editor and consultant for the School Libraries division of the NSW Department of Education.  Her recent publications include “Empowering 21st century readers:  Integrating graphic novels into primary classrooms” in Picture Books and Beyond (2014) edited by Kerry Mallan.

  • Xu Daozhi, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Xu Daozhi has recently completed her Ph.D.  in English literary studies and is now working as a senior research assistant at Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong.  Her dissertation focuses on postcolonial narratives in Australian children’s literature. Her research interests include children’s literature in English, postcolonial   literary studies, cultural theories, and representations of Aboriginality.

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Published

2016-01-01

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Articles

How to Cite

“Ubby’s Underdogs: A Transformative Vision of Australian Community” (2016) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 24(1), pp. 101–131. doi:10.21153/pecl2016vol24no1art1112.

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