Catherine (Katie) Langloh Parker (1 May 1856 - 27 March 1940) was a writer who lived in Northern New South Wales in the late nineteenth century, close to the Eulayhi people. The tales, with their sentient animals and mythic transformations, have a somnambulistic and chaotic narrative that mark them as authentic Dreamtime lore. She is best known for recording the stories of the Aboriginal people around her. As their culture was in decline, because of pressure by European settlers, her testimony is one of the best accounts we have of the beliefs and stories of the Aboriginal people of North-West New South Wales at that time. However, her accounts reflect European prejudices of the time, and so to modern ears her accounts contain a number of misconceptions and insensitive comments.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1897 Edition.

Catherine (Katie) Langloh Parker (1 May 1856 - 27 March 1940) was a writer who lived in Northern New South Wales Australia in the late nineteenth century. She is best known for recording the stories of the Aboriginal people around her. Langloh Parker's early work with the Euahlayi Tribe provides the reader with a fascinating insight into Aborigine life in the early twentieth century. Saved by an Aboriginal as a child, her accounts of the Tribe provide them with a friendly representative amongst the European Settlers of Australia, in a period where they faced great persecution and disruption to their traditional of way of life. Her recordings contain the best known accounts of the Aboriginal people in North-West New South Wales. This book also contains the earliest written account of Byamee, the All-Father, casting doubt on the assertion that that the God was a construct of European missionaries. It is also a valuable historical insight into the daily life, folklore and culture of the Aborigines before they way of life disappeared forever under the cultural hegemony of Australian Colonialists. This new revised edition of her work also contains the original introduction by Andrew Lang, and has been updated to contain politically correct language and references appropriate to a modern audience.

This is still one of the best available collections of Australian Aboriginal folklore. It was written for a popular audience, but the stories are retold with integrity, and not filtered, as was the case with similar books from this period. That said, the style of this book reflects Victorian sentimentality and, an occasional tinge of racism that may not sit well with some modern readers. K. Langloh Parker (the K. stands for 'Katie') 1856-1940] lived in the Australian outback most of her life, close to the Eulayhi people. The texts, with their sentient animals and mythic transformations, have a sonambulistic and chaotic narrative that mark them as authentic dreamtime lore. The mere fact that she cared to write down these stories places her far ahead of her contemporaries, who barely regarded native Australians as human. This was the first book Parker wrote. She write four books, three of native folklore and one an ethnography of the Eulayhi tribe. Parker has some odd connections with modern popular culture. She was rescued from drowning by an aborigine at an early age. This incident was portrayed in the film 'Picnic at Hanging Rock', directed by Peter Weir. The song They Call the Wind Mariah was based on a story from this book. (And the pop singer Mariah Cary was reputedly named after this song).--J.B. Hare

Illustrations By A Native Artist And A Specimen Of The Native Text.

Illustrations By A Native Artist And A Specimen Of The Native Text.

Illustrations By A Native Artist And A Specimen Of The Native Text.