Tod wants to be the greatest little tracker in the city. He’s already solved a case involving his neighbour’s cat using his eyes and a sprinkle of flour. And he’s found his way home from the other side of the city using just his mobile phone for directions though his Mum wasn’t too pleased at how late he and his younger brother got home.
Although Tod lives in the city his dad tells him that it is important that they learn their culture so they can ‘walk strong in both worlds’. And Tod wants to, so when he hears his ‘very-very-best uncle friend, Unc Bullfrog,… the master tracker of all Yamaji trackers’ is going to visit he can hardly contain himself.
‘Tiptoeing Tracker Tod’ is a warm, humourous tale in verse of family and friends or life as seen through Tod’s eyes recorded in the journal his teacher, Ms Thomas has set the class, ‘So I can see what makes you all tick’ and to help them prepare a presentation. The journal entries are both hilarious and thoughtful. We learn of the family’s trip to country to track and search for emu eggs and how Tod’s sister and her friend ‘the giggling goats’ get lost and how he and his Unc track and find them and this adventure then forms the basis of his successful school talk
Woven gently through the story is the sadness of the stolen generations and the loss of culture. Tod can’t understand why his other Yamaji friends at school are not interested in seeing his new tracking skills as they tell him ‘we city kids’ and he’s confused when, after overhearing some comments by his Mum, no one will explain what being ‘taken away’ means beyond being told that it’s ‘Too sad. We don’t talk about that business’ but he’s worried and wants to know more as ‘I don’t want my family taken away.’ The book’s strength lays in gaining an insight into learning to ‘walk strong in both worlds’.
Award-winning poet Charmaine Papertalk-Green is a visual artist, poet and writer. She was born at Eradu (between Geraldton and Mullewa) on Southern Yamaji country. She is a member of the Wajarri, Badimaya and Nhanagardi Wilunyu cultural groups of Yamaji Nation in Western Australia.
Series: Yarning Strong: Land Series
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
