Finding Our Heart: A Story About the Uluru Statement for Young Australians

by Thomas Mayor, Blak Douglas (Illustrator)

’When we all came together at Uluru, we invited all Australian people to accept our voice and culture as a gift.’

Can you help us find the heart of the nation?

A book about understanding Australia’s past, so we can have a shared future.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, History, Australia, Indigenous

40 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2020

About the author

Thomas Mayor is a Torres Strait Islander man born on Larrakia country in Darwin. As an Islander growing up on the mainland, he learned to hunt traditional foods with his father and to island dance from the Darwin community of Torres Strait Islanders. In high school, Thomas’s English teacher suggested he should become a writer. He didn’t think then that he would become one of the first ever Torres Strait Islander authors to have a book published for the general trade.

Instead, he became a wharf labourer from the age of seventeen, until he became a union official for the Maritime Union of Australia in his early thirties. Quietly spoken in character, Thomas found his voice on the wharves. As he gained the skills of negotiation and organising in the union movement, he applied those skills to advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples, becoming a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a tireless campaigner.

Following the Uluru Convention, Thomas was entrusted to carry the sacred canvas of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He then embarked on an eighteen-month journey around the country to garner support for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice, and a Makarrata Commission for truth-telling and agreement-making or treaties. Thomas’s journey continues, both in person and through the pages of this book. The book is his gift to the campaign for Voice, Treaty and Truth. Like the Uluru Statement from the Heart, he hopes that all Australians will accept it.

Reviews

[Freddie D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute perfection. Wonderful illustrations, concise but powerful text. The book includes the full AIATSIS map of Australia and the full Uluru Statement from the Heart - tremendously invaluable resources that every Australian should have access to. There are also resources at the end, and suggestions for further age-appropriate action. It's a treasure to find where the true heart of Australia lies.

[Liz Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding Our Heart: A story about the Uluru Statement for Young Australians by Thomas Mayor, a Torres Strait Islander born on Larrakia country in Darwin, and Blak Douglas, a three times Archibald finalist. The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for a First Nation's Voice to Parliament protected by the Constitution. Four years on it is still to be enacted. This picture book gives a (very) brief history of so-called Australia up to coming together to write the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It then moves to showing ho to find "the heart of the nation". "We started with the truth.//The heart of the nation did not come with the ships.//It did not come with the farms.//The explorers couldn't find it, //though they searched far and wide. [...] The heart of the nation has always been...right...here [hand on child's heart] and here, in our voices!" [...] "We invited everyone to listen to our heart in our songs, see our heart in our dances, learn where our heart is from in our stories and languages, and how we have cared for our environment." I'd say the audience for the book are non-Indigenous people so I'd make sure it was part of a broader discussion drawing on many sources. The imagery and words are clear and it can be read with children I'd say from kindergarten on. It's a book you can revisit easily but I wouldn't use it in a generic way, for example children finding their own heart. This is specific and its specificity has to be respected.

[Dianne Wolfer]

I recommend everyone reads this wonderful warm-hearted book about finding the heart of our nation. The text is accessible to all ages and the illustrations are beautiful. I loved the inclusion of the AIATSIS map of regional language/nation groups, and the statement itself in the endpapers.

[Tessa Wooldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Mayor is a Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) man who was born and raised on Larrakia land in Darwin. He was a participant in the Uluru Convention and his advocacy for the Convention’s Uluru Statement has, in part, found voice in two books: Finding the Heart of the Nation - The Journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth and a children’s version, Finding Our Heart.

In order to ‘find our heart’, Mayor argues, we need to start with the truth: ‘Before this place was called Australia, we Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were here for thousands and thousands of years … When Captain Cook arrived, our way of life changed and we were treated badly and ignored.’

Finding Our Heart includes the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia and it ends with sections titled ‘What you need to know about the Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and ‘How you can help find our heart’ (for example, learn some words from a First Nations language, learn about the different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seasons).

For more Australian Indigenous history books for children, see my blog post on this theme: https://tessawooldridge.com/2020/10/0...

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by an indigenous writer for all Australians in support of recognition of indigenous voices.
What I gained most from this was the ways in which everyone can find a way to share in the First Nations voice being heard - to find the heart of our nation.
It requires acknowledgement of the traditional owners, their languages, their wisdom, culture and creative talent on screen. And lastly but not by no means least read and share the Uluru statement from the heart.

[Lauren WM · Rating 2 out of 5]

I work with kids aged 3-5 and I find this book frustrating. I wouldn't recommend it as a teaching resource.

Briefly, it talks about the creation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but without really explaining in simple terms why it was necessary. When children don't even understand what a nation is, how can we explain what is meant by 'the heart of a nation'?

[Olwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to see a children's book telling it like it really is and was. Wish this book had been around when I was a child, so I could have heard more than one version of history.

Beyond the important message, this children's book has a lovely tactile cover and engaging illustrations.

[Brittany Schulz | Fiction & Friction · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful book and I’m so glad I bought it for my daughter. I love the honesty of the words and appreciate the way it’s aimed towards children. I can’t wait for my daughter to read this and see what she thinks.

[IntrepidAussie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great picture book for kids with a big message. Lots to unpack from the pictures.

[Leah Wings · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s Educational

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this book SO much! It just came, and already we’ve read it twice. The invitation to all to help find the heart (and gently sharing how to do so, especially in the back matter of the book) is moving and important. The amazing people first occupying and caring for the whole of the continent now known as Australia deserve their right to support, acceptance, love, and more—not the insane numbers of incarceration that is currently visiting upon them. Gorgeously illustrated, though I believe a few pages could have been done differently including having the flag included of the First Nations.