The Stone Axe of Burkamukk (1922) is a collection of Aboriginal
legends by Mary Grant Bruce. The product of extensive research on the
Aboriginal peoples of Gippsland, Victoria, Bruce's collection was
intended to educate Australian settlers regarding the traditions of
those they had displaced. Despite drawing criticism for her use of
racist stereotypes, Bruce's hope was that her work would force her
fellow settlers to "see that they were boys and girls, men and women,
not so unlike us in many ways, and that they could admire what we admire
in each other." Recognizing her prejudices as a product of her time, one
can appreciate The Stone Axe of Burkamukk as a record of Aboriginal
tales as well as the writer's status in settler-colonial society. "The
camp lay calm and peaceful under the spring sunlight. Burkamukk, the
chief, had chosen its place well: the wurleys were built in a green
glade well shaded with blackwood and boobyalla trees, and with a soft
thick carpet of grass, on which the black babies loved to roll. Not a
hundred yards away flowed a wide creek; a creek so excellent that it fed
a swamp a little farther on." As the chief of a prosperous people,
Burkamukk is both respected and feared by the inhabitants of the
Australian bush. His stone axe, made with a sapling handle by the best
craftsman of the tribe, is a symbol of his power and a useful tool for
hunting. A generous leader, he often lends his axe to members of his
tribe in return for a modest tribute. One day, when a hunting party
comes back from a deadly encounter with a legendary kangaroo, Burkamukk
swears an oath to avenge his lost tribesman. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Mary Grant
Bruce's The Stone Axe of Burkamukk is a classic of Australian
literature reimagined for modern readers.
