Afloat

A powerful picture book story for our time of climate crisis interwoven with Indigenous wisdom.

From multi-award-winning Gunai author Kirli Saunders and Kate Greenaway Medal-winner Freya Blackwood comes Afloat. Against a backdrop of a changed environment, an Elder leads a child along the waterways, sharing her People’s knowledge and gathering community along the way. This uplifting and inspiring picture book uses the practice of weaving as a powerful metaphor for the honoring and teaching of First Nations wisdom, and the coming together of all people to survive, thrive, and create a more hopeful future.

Kirli Saunders is a proud Gunai Woman who rarely stays in her lane. An award-winning, multidisciplinary artist, writer, singer-songwriter, and consultant, Kirli creates to connect, to make change. Her books have been celebrated by multiple literary awards, such as the Prime Minister’s and the Queensland, Victorian, and Western Australian Premiers’ Literary awards, the Children’s Book Council Australia awards, and the Australian Book Industry awards. In 2022, she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts.

Freya Blackwood is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books, who draws with a distinct style that is warm, perceptive and immediately recognizable. Since publishing her first picture book in 2003, Freya has won multiple awards, including the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal.