Moonbird People


Book Description

Popular account of a tour of the Furneaux Islands, Bass Strait; short history of their discovery; brief study of the Aborigines - extermination; descendants now on the islands of mixed race.




Moonbird


Book Description

Journey to the exotic South Sea island of Bali, a magical land of dark jungles, of ancient Gods, and terrifying demons. Madai lives on Bali and dreams of life beyond his island paradise. Yet his wildest dream could not prepare him for the odyssey that lies ahead after he finds a moonstone amulet that introduces him to the spirit world.




Moonbird


Book Description

B95 can feel it: a stirring in his bones and feathers. It's time. Today is the day he will once again cast himself into the air, spiral upward into the clouds, and bank into the wind. He wears a black band on his lower right leg and an orange flag on his upper left, bearing the laser inscription B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this gritty, four-ounce marathoner has flown the distance to the moon—and halfway back! B95 is a robin-sized shorebird, a red knot of the subspecies rufa. Each February he joins a flock that lifts off from Tierra del Fuego, headed for breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, nine thousand miles away. Late in the summer, he begins the return journey. B95 can fly for days without eating or sleeping, but eventually he must descend to refuel and rest. However, recent changes at ancient refueling stations along his migratory circuit—changes caused mostly by human activity—have reduced the food available and made it harder for the birds to reach. And so, since 1995, when B95 was first captured and banded, the worldwide rufa population has collapsed by nearly 80 percent. Most perish somewhere along the great hemispheric circuit, but the Moonbird wings on. He has been seen as recently as November 2011, which makes him nearly twenty years old. Shaking their heads, scientists ask themselves: How can this one bird make it year after year when so many others fall? National Book Award–winning author Phillip Hoose takes us around the hemisphere with the world's most celebrated shorebird, showing the obstacles rufa red knots face, introducing a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offering insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it's too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird. Moonbird is one The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012. A Common Core Title.




Volume One


Book Description

"The work features over 280 works by more than 170 Australian artists drawn from a period of acquisitions which began with the consitution of the MCA in May 1989."--p. 17.




Art Plus Soul


Book Description

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF THE BESTSELLER FIRST AUSTRALIANS COMES the lavishly illustrated art+soul, the companion book to the prime-time ABC TV series by the same name. art+soul is inspired by the flourishing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia over the past thirty years, captivating viewers around the world with astonishingly powerful artworks. Hetti Perkins, the distinguished Aboriginal art curator, travels to the startlingly beautiful landscapes of remote Arnhem Land, saltwater country and the desert heartlands of Central Australia, sharing with us the rare privilege of being welcomed into the homes and homelands of many senior artists. This lavishly illustrated book captures the remarkable energy and diversity of Aboriginal art, from the Papunya Tula Artists, the renowned art movement that had its humble beginnings in the early 1970s, to Rover Thomas and his heirs' phenomenal achievements in the East Kimberley. It features the work of contemporary artists Destiny Deacon, Brenda L Croft and Michael Riley, and that of the celebrated Emily Kam Ngwarray, whose paintings revolutionised Australian art. art+soul tells their storiesandmdash;heartfelt, intimate and political. The book includes more than 150 artworks, and photographs by Warwick Thornton, director of the accompanying television series and the award-winning film Samson and Delilah.




Knowledge of Life


Book Description

Knowledge of Life is a timely publication, which emphasises the importance of relationships between non-Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Led by accomplished academic, educator and author Kaye Price, the experienced author team provides students with a comprehensive guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.




Moonbirds


Book Description

K'reeth and her sister, K'rin, were named for the moonbirds--sister raptor birds who share parenting duties, one the nurturer, the other the hunter and defender. Orphaned by catastrophe and adopted by the High Mistrada of the T'bredi scholars, they're teachers entrusted with all the gathered wisdom of the Ayanlak. Their bond of sisterhood is tested when K'reeth falls in love with the Wind Walker Talon. The relationship is further strained when the new peace with the Colonist invaders includes a promise to send home all the children who have been rescued by and raised among the Ayanlak--and K'reeth is the first. Her forced journey to be reunited with a family she doesn't even remember eventually takes both sisters across the continent and into the nest of political intrigue and contention that may tear their world apart--on the very brink of peace and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.




Haunted Earth


Book Description

This book tackles head on the existence and meaning of spirit forces in Australia. It poses the question is Australia haunted? If so where and with what?




Intersections


Book Description

Using photographs from the National Library's collection, Ennis introduces us to Australia from the 1840's to the present as we have never seen it before - at peace and at war, and in all its splendour and ordinary dailiness, as seen through the cameras of Charles Bayliss, Samuel Sweet, Peta Hill and many others. Large format.




Carnivorous Nights


Book Description

Packing an off-kilter sense of humor and keen scientific minds, authors Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson take off with renowned artist Alexis Rockman on a postmodern safari. Their mission? Tracking down the elusive Tasmanian tiger. This mysterious, striped predator was once the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial. It had a pouch like a kangaroo and a jaw that opened impossibly wide to reveal terrifying choppers. Tragically, this rare and powerful animal was hunted into extinction in the early part of the twentieth century. Or was it? Journeying first to the Australian mainland and then south to the wild island of Tasmania, these young naturalists brave a series of bizarre misadventures and uproarious wildlife encounters in their obsessive search for the long-lost beast. From an ancient cave featuring an aboriginal painting of the tiger to a lab in Sydney where maverick scientists are trying to resurrect the animal through cloning, this intrepid trio comes face-to-face with blood-sucking land leeches and venomous bull ants, a misbehaving wallaby who invades their motel room, and a crew of flesh-eating, bone-crunching Tasmanian devils gorging on roadkill. They bond with trappers, bushwackers, and wildlife experts who refuse to abandon the tiger hunt, despite the paucity of evidence. Sifting through local myths, bar-room banter, and historical accounts, these environmental detectives sweep readers into a world where platypus’ swim, kangaroos roam, and a large predator with a pouch was–or perhaps still is–queen of the jungle. Filled with Alexis Rockman’s stunning drawings of flora and fauna–-made from soil, wombat scat, and the artist’s own blood–Carnivorous Nights is a hip and hilarious account of an unhinged safari, as well as a fascinating portrayal of a wildly unique part of the world.