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Caring for Country: First Knowledges for younger readers

Brief Description
What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? Join writer and farmer Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage as they generously share their knowledge about the amazing way that First Nations people cared for Australia and how closely... Read More
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What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more?

Join writer and farmer Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage as they generously share their knowledge about the amazing way that First Nations people cared for Australia and how closely humans have been connected with nature for tens of thousands of years.

From the careful use of fire to sustainable hunting and farming, there is so much we can learn to make sure we have a beautiful country today and for the future.

The First Knowledges series for younger readers celebrates the wisdom and ingenuity of the First Peoples of this land. From baking the world's first bread to expertly managing Country so that everything had a chance to flourish, these books provide children with the building blocks to better understand our history and look to the future with fresh eyes.

Series: First Knowledges

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  • Caring for Country: First Knowledges for younger readers
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? Join writer and farmer Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage as they generously share their knowledge about the amazing way that First Nations people cared for Australia and how closely humans have been connected with nature for tens of thousands of years. From the...
    Paperback
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  • First Knowledges Country
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions. Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Innovation
    ‘Deeply insightful, sensitive and passionate. An inspiring, meticulous picture of the innovations that have made us the world's oldest living culture.’ - Larissa Behrendt ‘Another fascinating volume in this landmark Australian publishing series.’ - Richard Flanagan What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Law
    'Our Laws are forever present and provide the pathways for all Australians to truly learn how to belong to this continent.' - June Oscar 'No other current work has been able to so comprehensively explain the significance of traditional law in all its manifestations.' - Henry Reynolds Law is culture, and culture is law. Given by the ancestors and cultivated...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Songlines
    Let this series begin the discussion. - Bruce Pascoe An act of intellectual reconciliation. - Lynette Russell Songlines are an archive for powerful knowledges that ensured Australia's many Indigenous cultures flourished for over 60,000 years. Much more than a navigational path in the cartographic sense, these vast and robust stores of information are encoded through song, story, dance, art and...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Astronomy
    What do you need to know to prosper for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the oldest scientists in human history. Many First Peoples regard the land as a reflection of the sky and the sky a reflection of...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Plants
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. Plants are the foundation of life on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always known this to be true. For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • Songlines: First Knowledges for younger readers
    How do you find your way around, get your food and drink, connect with your friends and family? How do you know the right and safe way to do things, or how to make things? Before the white people came to the continent, all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples knew how to do all these things - and...
    Paperback
    $2999
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  • First Knowledges Design
    Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps, and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion. Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability, and storytelling, refined...
    Paperback
    $3299
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  • First Knowledges Ceremony
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. We perform ceremonies every day. Some are personal, some highly organised, and others are repeated for generations. For First Nations Australians, ceremonies create the backbone of cultural...
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  • First Knowledges Health
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.For thousands of generations the wellbeing of Australia's First Peoples was grounded in the sacred lands of Mother Earth. Good health occurred naturally because lifestyle and diet were...
    Paperback
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  • First Knowledges Politics
    First Nations peoples of Australia are among the world's oldest political designers. For them, Country isn't just a place to live, it's part of the network of relationships that shape responsibilities, behaviour and decision-making—a template for living together. First Nations social and political systems balance individual freedom with a strong sense of responsibility and connection to others. By placing relationships...
    Paperback
    $3299
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760763572

Publisher: Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 30 September 2025

Country: Australia

Imprint: Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd

Illustration: 96 Illustrations

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 158.0mm

Height: 213.0mm

Weight: 336g

Pages: 148

About the Author

Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong, Yuin and Tasmanian Aboriginal writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. He is the enterprise professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. He is best known for his work Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture (Magabala Books 2014)

Bill Gammage is a historian at the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. His books include The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War and three prize-winning titles - Narrandera Shire, The Sky Travellers: Journeys in New Guinea 1938-1939 and The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia.

Also by Bruce Pascoe

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  • Dark Emu
    Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe is a groundbreaking work that challenges the widely held perceptions of pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians as mere hunter-gatherers. Through meticulous research and an examination of colonial-era records, Pascoe presents compelling evidence that Aboriginal societies engaged in sophisticated agricultural practices. Readers will be drawn into a narrative that redefines ancient Australian history, suggesting that Aboriginal people were...
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  • Salt
    Showcasing the shimmering genius of Bruce Pascoe, author of the bestselling Dark Emu. A collection of stories and essays by the award-winning author of Dark Emu, showcasing his shimmering genius across a lifetime of work. This volume of Bruce Pascoe's best and most celebrated stories and essays, collected here for the first time, traverses his long career and explores his...
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  • First Knowledges Country
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions. Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the...
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  • Convincing Ground
    Convincing Ground pulses with love of country. In this powerful, lyrical, and passionate work, Bruce Pascoe asks us to fully acknowledge our past and the way those actions continue to influence our nation today, both physically and intellectually. The book resonates with ongoing debates about identity, dispossession, memory, and community. Pascoe draws on the past through a critical examination of...
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  • Black Duck
    Sometimes you need to repeat something a hundred times before a bell rings in the colony. From the bestselling author Bruce Pascoe comes a deeply personal story about the consequences and responsibility of disrupting Australia's history. When Dark Emu was adopted by Australia like a new anthem, Bruce found himself at the centre of a national debate that often focussed...
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  • Imperial Harvest
    Imperial Harvest is a timely book that speaks to the universal lessons of war. It addresses pertinent themes of dispossession by tracing imperialist tactics all the way back to the rise of the Khan empire in the 13th century. Yen Se has lost everything to the Khan's brutality. Left with one eye and one leg, he is forced out of...
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  • Found
    Winner of the Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award Longlisted for the 2021 ABIAs: Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year Age range 0-8 This gentle story set in the rugged Australian bush is about a small calf who becomes separated from his family. The little calf is alone and simply wants his mother, sisters, and brothers. He can see other animals,...
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  • Mrs Whitlam
    Age range 9 to 12 Marnie Clark of Curdie Vale can ride, but she doesn't have a horse. She dreams of owning one and having the whole world to ride it in. Before too long, Marnie is gifted Mrs Whitlam, a beautiful, big Clydesdale—bold, fearless, and able to jump anything. From the very first ride, Marnie and Maggie get more...
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  • Fog A Dox
    Albert Cutts is a tree feller. A fella who cuts down trees. Fog is a fox cub raised by a dingo. He's called a dox because people are suspicious of foxes and Albert Cutts owns the dingo and now the dox. Albert is a bushman and lives a remote life surrounded by animals and birds. All goes well until Albert...
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  • Sea Horse
    Written with gentle humour and a beautiful interpretation of landscape, this adventure story about Jack and his family is reminiscent of endless summers, azure seas, and sandy white beaches. Jack, his dad Vince, sister Tanya, and mum Carla escape to Seahorse Bay whenever they can. Idyllic days are spent exploring the waters of the bay, diving, fishing, and cooking up...
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  • No Hiding From the Woman in the Moon
    A celebration of the moon, of life and of love from one of Australia’s most acclaimed authors. By turns romantic and realist, Bruce Pascoe explores the urgency of the contemporary climate crisis and the need to love Country in his haunting, slow-burning and classical poetry style. This is startlingly vulnerable poetry to heal the earth, to navigate heartache, to provoke...
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  • Young Dark Emu
    *Winner of the CBCA 2020Eve Pownall Award for Information Books**Winner of the Booksellers' Choice 2020Children'sBook of the Year Award**Shortlisted for the 2020NSW Premier's Literary AwardsPatricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature**Shortlisted for the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)**Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2020: Children's*Age range 10+. The highly-anticipated junior version of Bruce Pascoe's multi award-winning...
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Also by William Leonard Gammage

View all
  • First Knowledges Country
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions. Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the...
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