LibGuides: English: The Rabbits

Useful Links

Shaun Tan's website: The Rabbits
Includes an introduction and brief comments about The Rabbits, as well as artwork from the book. Tan says: "The parallels with a real history of colonisation in Australia and around the world are obvious, and based on detailed research, in spite of the overt surrealism of the imagery and the absence of direct references."
Rabbiting On: A Conversation about The Rabbits
This interview was originally published in Eidolon magazine in 1999, shortly after publication of The Rabbits. The interviewer is Nick Stathopoulos, a long-time friend of Shaun Tan and fellow artist and illustrator based in Sydney.
The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature: Who will save us from the rabbits?: rewriting the past allegorically
An interesting, but quite academic, article that examines The Rabbits as an allegory for the European colonisation of Australia and its impact on the original inhabitants of the land.

The Rabbits Opera

John Marsden and Shaun Tan's haunting picture book captivated a generation of children and adults, with its bold pictures and deeply moving story of progress, displacement and culture clash. It is a story that speaks to the world.

Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company assembled some of Australia's foremost creative talents to adapt this story into a new opera for children and families. The result is "a triumphant adaptation of a deeply tragic story", wrote The Guardian.

Gabriela Tylesova's sets and costumes realise Tan's pictures in all of their mystical wonder, while Lally Katz transforms Marsden's spare poetry into an enchanting libretto. Butterfly-voiced opera and pop singer Kate Miller-Heidke wrote the "simply beautiful" score (The Guardian) and performs in the production alongside a talented cast of opera singers and contemporary music performers.

The Rabbits won four Helpmann Awards, including Best New Australian Work, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, and Best Presentation for Children.

If you want to listen to the music, you can preview or purchase it on iTunes or Opera Australia. You can also watch this video of highlights from the opera.

Video: They Have Come to Stay

Series: First Australians. Episode 1: The first Australians and the British, the most powerful Empire in history, come face to face in Sydney on January 26, 1788. Their differences are immense but apprehension quickly turns to curiosity.

Production Year: 2015

Duration: 1:10:12

The rest of the series can be viewed here.

Books available in the NCC

The Rabbits by John Marsden; Shaun Tan
ISBN: 9780850918786
A story about the invasion of Australia by Europeans and the gradual destruction of the original inhabitants and the environment upon which they depended. Picture fiction for older readers.

Colonialisation: Further Reading

A Failure to Understand : Early colonialism and the Indigenous peoples by Margaret McPhee
ISBN: 1742455131
The story of how people lived, from the convicts to the elite. This is a chronicle of how they worked, fed and clothed themselves and how they spent their time. A look at the monumental clash between European colonialism and the Aboriginal peoples, from the first tentative and difficult interactions of the early explorers to the arrival of the First Fleet.
The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European invasion of Australia (eBook) by H. Reynolds
ISBN: 9781742240497
The publication of this book in 1981 profoundly changed the way in which we understand the history of relations between Indigenous Australians and European settlers. It has since become a classic of Australian history. Drawing from documentary and oral evidence, the book describes in meticulous and compelling detail the ways in which Aboriginal Australians responded to the arrival of Europeans. Henry Reynolds' argument that the Aboriginal people resisted fiercely was highly original when it was first published and is no less challenging today.
Aboriginal heroes of the resistance: from Pemulwuy to Mabo by Paul W Newbury
ISBN: 9780959375374
Through a series of review essays, this powerful, thought-provoking book explodes the myth of minimal resistance to white invasion and domination. It goes a long way to restoring these Aboriginal heroes to their rightful place in our national consciousness and to the recovery of Aboriginal history.

Video: Australia Over Time - Rabbits

Rabbits were first introduced to make Australia more like England but their presence has been both a scourge and a boon. Farmers and native animals have been devastated while some industries are dependent on them for their livelihood.

Production Year: 2001

Duration: 9:55