Our Map

Our Map

Angie Cui

Novia Heroanto

Wombat Books, 2025

32pp., hbk., RRP $A26.99

9781761112362

Spread out a world map on a table or place a globe where it can be spun and watch the students gravitate toward it like galahs to a bowl of seed. 

But what if you can’t find the place you’re looking for because it’s been swallowed by a larger country and to the eyes of the map-makers, no longer exists?

To JJ, a map of the world is a fascinating thing and she loves spending time poring over them with her Baba as he shows her countries, mountains and seas.  Yet her bestie, Lee, doesn’t like looking at them at all. Because although JJ can find Bangladesh where her baba comes from, and China where her mama comes from, Lee cannot find his country at all.  He and his family came to Australia as refugees when he was very young and now it seems his country no longer exists.  Or is the map wrong?  Does it not show everything? 

Determined to cheer her friend up and make him feel he does belong, JJ has an idea … and soon a new map is born.  One that has meaning and memories for everyone…

Walk into any Australian classroom these days and there will be any number of children who can trace their heritage to somewhere beyond our shores and for whom those origins are kept alive within their families.  But there will also be a Lee whose country has been “eaten” by an aggressor and although the memories persist, it no longer makes a mark, “not even a name or a dot” on  the map.  And that can trigger some strong emotions, so this is a story that will resonate widely and JJ’s solution might be just the answer a teacher needs.  It’s a simple, straight-forward narrative that can have a big impact as children learn more about the place where they were born – even if that’s Australia – while also having big implications as others realise their origins are acknowledged and valued.  Just because the map-makers no longer see them doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. 

(And you could even introduce “cartography” to their vocabulary!)