Legendary Tales of the Australian Arborigines

David Unaipon was a most extraordinary man. He was not only an early Aboriginal political activist, but also a scientist, a writer, a preacher and an inventor. In the 1920s, under contract at the University of Adelaide, he was commissioned to collect traditional Aboriginal stories from around South Australia. He also acted as a 'collector' for the Aborigines Friends' Association. The manuscript version of the stories he collected is now held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. Most of them come from his own Ngarrindjeri people, but some are from other South Australian peoples. Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker, who are working on a definitive biography of David Unaipon, have put together a new collection of the stories he collected and transcribed. "These stories, collected in manuscript and typescript as 'Legendary tales of the Australian Aborigines', were written in 1924-1925 and reside in the State Library of New South Wales. ... Presented here ... in their original form."--Page xi In putting together this edition of the Australian Aboriginal stories Unaipon collected and transcribed, the editors have undertaken a "literary repatriation", restoring the text to its original form and bringing it home to its community.