Aboriginal Australia
Australian History Ethnography Young Adult Non-Fiction Indigenous Art Cultural Studies Collectible Picture Book Aboriginal Studies
First published in 1982 and long out of print, Carol Cooper’s Aboriginal Australia has become one of the most sought-after Australian picture books among collectors, educators, and travellers who want an authentic, visually rich introduction to the world’s oldest living culture. This scarce first-edition paperback gathers more than 100 photographs, bark paintings, rock-art details and line drawings—many commissioned especially for the book—into a concise 96-page gallery that shows how Dreamtime stories, ceremony and country are translated into living visual language. Because it was produced for young adult and general readers rather than academics, the text is jargon-free yet still authoritative, making it the perfect entry point for classrooms, family road-trips through the Centre, or the reference shelf of anyone who needs a quick, reliable overview of Aboriginal art regions, symbols and protocols.
What lifts this title above later mass-market surveys is its vintage 1982 perspective: the images were shot in the late-1970s, capturing remote communities and artists just as the contemporary Aboriginal art market was beginning to bloom. Readers meet early masters such as Yirawala, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and Banduk Marika, and see traditional ground mosaics, body paint and grave-posts that were rarely photographed again once tourism restrictions tightened. The book’s large-format, full-bleed plates reproduce the warm ochres and acrylic brights of the originals far better than today’s economical reprints, so the pages still glow four decades on. Collectors prize clean copies like this one for the colour fidelity alone; teachers love the durable square spine that lies flat for group viewing.
Condition notes for this copy: light edge-creasing and surface scuffs to the pictorial card covers—entirely normal for a paperback carried on outback trips—while the interior remains crisp, bright and firmly bound; only the final few leaves show the light foxing so common in Australian papers of the period. A previous owner has left no names, stamps or inscriptions, so the provenance is clean. Whether you are building a heritage Australiana collection, curating a culturally diverse classroom library, or hunting a nostalgic gift for someone who travelled the Red Centre in the ’80s, this affordable first edition delivers the authentic artwork, cultural respect and period charm that later reprints simply can’t replicate.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now