Claudia Haagen, says in her introduction to this book. "It is through the toys collected over time, combined with fragments of historical commentary, that we can now account for an aspect of Australian childhood that has escaped notice ... At the outset, this work was prompted by the necessity to document a collection ... The outcome here is in fact a composite record, enhancing both an understanding of the particular and at the same time indicating a continuum alive with diversity". Begun as a catalogue of the collections of the National Museum of Australia, this 'ensemble of texts' grew into a fascinating account of a little-known aspect of Australian social history, surveying material from collections all over Australia. Each section of text is accompanied by apposite quotes from a huge variety of written records from sites all over Australia. From spears, shields and throwing sticks to hockey, marbles and fireworks, this beautifully illustrated and cleverly structured book builds for the reader a composite picture of the lives of Aboriginal children in the past and in the present, and adds significantly to records of Aboriginal society then and now.

This work contains text and/or images that may cause offence to members of the Australian Indigenous community, or may be deemed inappropriate for some users on the grounds of sex, age or social status by the Australian Indigenous community.