Diversity in Australian Children’s Book Awards?

 

Following on from looking at censorship and book bans, what better topic to look at than at cultural diversity – particularly in Children’s Book Awards. 

I found a wonderful article “A Cause for Hope or an Unwitting Conspiracy?”, written by lecturers Helen Adam and Yvonne Urquhart (2023), from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.  Both have a passion for the importance of “authentically diverse and inclusive literature to break down barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding in society” (Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.58). 

This agrees with the American Library Association (ALA) Council which states, “A diverse collection should contain content by and about a wide array of people and cultures to authentically reflect a variety of ideas, information, stories, and experiences” (2019, sect.6).

Adam & Urquhart chose to look at literary award shortlists as these are often used by libraries and parents to search out quality books for children.  Ninety picture books were chosen from the shortlists of 2019, 2020 from multiple awards across Australia, as these feature books published and/or written and illustrated in Australia.  The authors examined the illustrations in each book, focussing on the representation of the human characters - skin colour and other visual differences as an indication of race, while acknowledging that they “ascribe to the belief that race is a social construct” (Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.50).  They noted that 68% of the books with human characters had some cultural or racial diversity, but that “specific ethnicities…were mostly unclear or ambiguous” (Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.55).  There were concerns over two books that portrayed outdated stereotypes.

The authors did not examine the award criteria or processes but recommended that “consideration of the authenticity of cultural representations” (Adam & Urquhart, 2023, p.55) be included.

In reflecting upon this article, I realised it was not something I had ever thought about, so I looked at the recently released shortlists for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2024, which are available here:

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards 2024.

I was particularly interested in this list, living in Western Australia myself.  Authors must reside in Western Australia for all awards except for The Daisy Utemorrah Award for Unpublished Indigenous Junior and YA Fiction which is open to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers Australia wide (State Library of Western Australia, 2024b).  You can read about the wonderful manuscripts for this award here at Magabala Books.

The shortlists for the CBCA 2024 awards are available at:

CBCA Book of the Year Award 2024.

My picks showcasing diversity?

Our Country: Where History Happened - Journey through tens of thousands of years of history (Greenwood, M., 2024).

I am the Mau and other stories – stories exploring the duality of Kenyan Life (Glasheen, 2023).

Huda was here – centred around Lebanese Australians and living in a minority group (Hayek, 2023).

The Concrete Garden – community friendships in an urban setting (Graham, 2023).

Tamarra: A story of termites on Gurindji Country - the life of termites through Gurindji storytelling (Wadrill et al., 2023).

This Book Thinks Ya Deadly! A Celebration of Blak Excellence – short form biographies of First Nations People who have done great things (Tutt, C., 2023).

I firmly believe there is definitely hope for cultural diversity in children’s literature.

References

Adam, H., & Urquhart, Y. (2023). A cause for hope or an unwitting complicity? The representation of cultural diversity in award-listed Children’s picturebooks in Australia. Bookbird, 61(2), 48–58. https://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2023.0023.

American Library Association Council. (2019). Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations.

Glasheen, C. (2023). I am the Mau and other stories. Fremantle Press.

Graham. B. (2023). The concrete garden. (B. Greham, Illus.). Walker Books Australia.

Greenwood, M. (2023). Our country: Where history happened. (F. Lessac, Illus.). Walker Books Australia.

Hayek, H. (2023). Huda was here. A & U Children.

State Library of Western Australia. (2024a). Western Australia Premier’s Book Awards 2024: Shortlist announced. https://slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/awards-fellowships/wa-premiers-book-awards/2024-shortlist.

State Library of Western Australia. (2024b). Categories, prizes and guidelines. https://slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/awards-fellowships/wa-premiers-book-awards/categories-prizes-and-guidelines.

Tutt, C. (2023). This book thinks ya deadly! A celebration of Blak excellence. (M. Hunt, Illus.). Hardie Grant Explore.

Wadrill, V., Ngarnjal, T.D., Leaman, L., Edwards, C., Algy, C., Meakins, F., Barr, B. & Crocetti, G. (2023). Tamarra: A story of termites on Gurindji Country. Hardie Grant Explore.