Kuku Yalanji and Magarr-Magarr Warra woman Cathy Freeman honours language and land in her new picture book, The Heartbeat of the Land.

Cathy is also an Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion and she was the first female Australian Aboriginal to win a gold medal at an international athletics event. Coral Vass co-authors her new picture book. Vass is an award-winning Australian Children’s author who wrote Sorry Day.

Tanya Harricks illustrates The Heartbeat of the Land. Harricks has exhibited in Australia, New Zealand and Florence and has also been awarded the Waverley Art Prize (2013) and Hornsby Art Prize.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Cathy ran barefoot every day across the great ancient land,

as her people had done for sixty thousand years before.

And when she ran, she could hear the heartbeat of the land.

Ba Boom Ba Boom Ba Boom…

Then one day, Cathy hears a cry.

She answers this cry and, with one small step at a time, the seeds of change are planted.

Cathy Freeman has always been an inspiration to young people.

Here, she does it again, through storytelling – just as her people have done, for sixty

thousand years before…

Listen, and you too, will hear the Heartbeat of the Land.