Story doctors by Boori Monty Pryor. Illus. by Rita Sinclair

Let the stories heal is the powerful message in Boori Pryor’s latest book, Story Doctors. He trawls through millennia, the stories told and images left in cathedrals of rock, recording the journeys made by those who live in this nurtured land. Using ochre and spit, the stories are there to heal. He reminds us that the environment will help with the healing, the stories and dance facilitating this process.

In verse form, Pryor has used words which resonate with meaning. Each line will make readers stop and ponder the ramifications of the words: ideas spread out, capturing things half remembered, alluding to a range of themes and impressions gained and sometimes forgotten.

Story doctors will help people recall two hundred years of insecurity, and find the path to use the stories to heal.

Well known and loved First Nations storyteller Boori Monty Pryor, Australian Children’s Laureate in 2011–2013, offers a multi layered account of Australia’s history, aiming to teach his readers and help heal the nation. With a sense of foreboding he had predicted that Australia was going to get very sick – a result of us leaving our past unacknowledged. His impetus is to have everyone share in healing, to have everyone listen to the stories so our country becomes a place where we all belong.

For some time Boori has felt the longest continuous culture in the world would be able to use its medicine through storytelling. To this end he has written this book, a thoughtful message of healing and hope with allusions to a myriad of events and people, places and stores, all encouraging contemplation, thought and discussion. The future is in the past, and this is reiterated by Rita Sinclair with a twirling ribbon leading the way, entwining the black and white hands that recur through the pages.

Sinclair’s naive art encompasses the ideas Boori presents, speaking volumes through the illustrations alluded to in the text. So we see the cathedrals of art, the pharmacies above and below ground, the footprints of time, roots of old and the dancing in the dust with a new found sound. Her images recall thousands of years of history, the bushfires, the damage done to the environment by the recent settlers, the healing that can put things right. She includes details that eager eyes will point out: a stethoscope, a myriad of different animals, kangaroo, echidna, koala and so on, and various Indigenous tools, the dark emu in the night sky, the burnt trees, a history book with a renewed title.

The images and the text coalesce to create a picture book worthy of further study, thought and action. Story Doctors is well-timed for NAIDOC week, 4 –11 July. The theme this year: Heal Country. Downloadable activities are available from the publisher.

Fran Knight