Somebody's Land - Welcome To Our Country

Co-winner Karajia Award for Children’s Literature

by Adam Goodes, Ellie Laing
Illustrated by David Hardy
Published by Allen & Unwin
ISBN 9781760526726

For thousands of years people have lived here and yet when the European explorers came here they declared the land "terra nullis" meaning nobody's land. In this picture book for ages 4+ Adam Goodes, anti-racism campaigner, former Australian Rules Footballer, Australian of the Year 2014, and journalist Ellie Lang tell the story of the people who lived in this land we call Australia. It seeks to explain about the people who lived here, how they lived in their homes, sat in the sun to tell stories of their ancestors and culture. It seems rather an idyllic lifestyle!

Somebody's Land invites young children and their families to connect with First Nations culture, while acknowledging the hurt of past generations and importantly to being everyone together as one cohesive community with a precious shared history.

It is an easily read story and with some repetition to explain this was not a terra nullis. Together with David Hardy's illustrations depicting life as it was helps children imagine the way Australia was and to get a sense of the richness of the culture and country of Australia's First Nations' history. This it he first in a series of 5 books.