Summary

Country of the heart provides an introduction to the connections between Aboriginal people and the land that has sustained and nurtured them for generations.

Through the wonderful photographic images and the stories of the MakMak clan women (white-breasted sea eagle), readers are led into the heart of country: the people, the animals, the plants, the ancestors, the seasons — and the intimate relationships which tie them together.

The story is told through the voices of Indigenous academic, Linda Ford, and her family, the traditional custodians of Wagait country. Their story includes the challenges her people continue to meet to maintain the health of ‘country’. As Ford says: ‘Country gives us our identity.’

Reviews and endorsements

‘… a beautiful and landmark work … [by] one of our finest thinkers and writers … It is both poetic and scholarly, visual and textual … Such a work takes years to grow and could only emerge from a scholar at the height of their powers.’

— Dr Tom Griffiths FAHA, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University