Picture Book - Sophie

*Yellow-Eye*

Written by David Spillman and Mark Wilson, Yellow Eye is a story about communications between Aboriginal and white communities. It is written in first person and told through the eyes of a young aboriginal boy. The white community wants to work with the aboriginal community to find out why the Yellow-eye fish are becoming scarce and we learn that each has different ways of viewing the world. While the white community members use technology to discover what has caused the Yellow-eye numbers to drop, the aboriginal elders can tell what has caused the change because they know the land so well. They have seen the effects of the weir, copper mine and cattle grazing introductions and are able to predict that it is in fact the forestry plantation which have caused the issue. This story is beautifully told with the purpose of teaching the reader about how aboriginal communities respect and know the land and the values they uphold within their community. It follows a narrative structure with the complication being the dropping numbers of the Yellow-Eye and the resolution being the clearing of the plantation, allowing the cycle of life to continue and fish numbers to rise. This text would be valuable to use with students as an introduction to aboriginal studies or a SOSE topic about sustainability, the effects of development or life cycles in Science.