How early Australian fairy tales displaced Aboriginal people with mythical creatures and fantasies of empty land
A prince flies in a carriage propelled by kingfishers in Hume Cook’s Australian Fairytales. Author provided Michelle Smith , Monash University Content warning: this article contains reference to racist depictions of Aboriginal Australians. Most of us grew up reading fairy tales adapted from the European tradition: stories of kings, queens and princesses set in palaces and forests, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast. But what about the history of Australian fairy tales? Australia’s vast distances, deserts, harsh temperatures, deadly wildlife, and the ongoing cultures of Aboriginal Australians made the country a complicated fit for fairy tales. Indeed, few tales by Australian authors were published until the late 19th century. These early Australian fairy tales mythologised aspects of the country’s history and environment to sanitise the process of white settlement. In doing so, they helped to invent traditions and cultural explanati...