The companion book to the Gatherings art catalogue that was published in 2001. This is yet another comprehensive book featuring over 100 practicing Indigenous artists from Queensland. A must have for anybody interested in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Set in the 1920s Caucasian-Aborigine marriages were illegal, a Caucasian drover (sheepherder) who was forced to pass off his Aboriginal wife as a drover’s boy. Hardcover, Young Adult

An introduction. Includes rock, sand, body, and bark painting. Hardcover. Ages 9-12

Eric Michaels, a social scientist from Texas who was a lecturer on media studies at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, documents the development of aboriginal media in the book “Bad Aboriginal Art – Tradition, Media, and Technological Horizons.” Published posthumously after his death in 1988 from AIDS, this rich volume contains Michaels’ field essays and research papers exploring the impact of communications technology has had on the Aborigines in central Australia outside the margins of the “electronic grid.”

After more than two hundred years, one of the most important moral issues facing Australian society in the 1990s remains the need for reconciliation with its indigenous people. In this selection of essays, H. C. Coombs reflects on the nature of Aboriginal identity and the importance of autonomy for Australiaas Aboriginal people. He also suggests strategies by which self-determination might be achieved in practice. Many of the chapters have been written especially for this volume – including one in which Dr Coombs makes a thoughtful and provocative contribution to the Mabo debate, linking the High Courtas historic 1992 decision on native title to prospects for Aboriginal autonomy. Dr Coombs writes with the conviction that mainstreama Australia stands to gain as much, if not more, than Aboriginal people from the fulfilment of Aboriginal aspirations. It is a personal and passionate plea for a just society, from one of white Australia’s most influential and eloquent advocates of self-determination for its indigenous people.

I found this book inspiring and hopeful. V

In his magnum opus more than 25 years in the making, psychologist, eco-therapist, and wilderness guide Plotkin (Soulcraft) brings forth a new model for the whole of human life and spirituality in our world in dire ecological need, spoiled by patho-adolescent society.

A new beginning for the environment must start with a new spiritual outlook. In this book, author Joanna Macy offers concrete suggestions for just that, showing how each of us can change the attitudes that continue to threaten our environment. Using the Buddha’s teachings on Paticca Samuppada, which stresses the interconnectedness of all things in the world and suggests that any one action affects all things, Macy describes how decades of ignoring this principle has resulted in a self-centeredness that has devastated the environment. Humans, Macy implores, must acknowledge and understand their connectedness to their world and begin to move toward a more focused effort to save it.