Are You Talking to Me? Hailing the Reader in Indigenous Children’s Literature

Abstract

Indigenous-authored children's books are frequently subjected to a non-Indigenous gaze in both their production (editing, design and so on) and reception. The texts discussed here address their many readers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, child and adult, using various techniques. The paratexts in particular address readers and claim their attention in a variety of ways. This paper is an analysis of two Indigenous authored children's books, 'My Girragundji' by Meme McDonald and Boori Pryor and 'Tell me why' by Robyn Templeton and Sarah Jackson. The first part of the analysis looks closely at 'Tell me why', and explores critical strategy to the approaches taken within the text. Boori Pryor's and Meme McDonald's 'My Girragundji' is the second text analysed, exploring issues of audience address and textual authorisation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the political repercussions of the role of paratexts in Indigenous children's books, and the ways in which these contribute to how the imagined reader perceives the role of both text and author.