History, Nature and Children in Australian Children's Literature: Paper delivered at: Building up Cross Cultural understanding through Children's Literature between Australia and Korea

In this paper, I offer a series of 'snapshots' of particular and significant works of Australian children's literature, covering the period from white settlement to the present, at roughly 50 year intervals. I suggest that from these snapshots it is possible to discern within Australian Children's Literature a series of shifting conceptions - of land, of nationhood, of belonging, and of which myths and mythos are significant in the shaping of Australian cultural identity. With reference to works by Barton (1841), Patchett (1953), Brinsmead (1964), Lette and Carey (1979), Southall (1970) and Tan (1988, 2019), this paper provides a broad overview of the changing shape and perspectives offered in Australian literature for children.