In learning about Resourcing the Curriculum as part of my Teacher Librarianship studies I read about the case of a Brisbane primary school inspired to review their collection after a book containing offensive, ignorant, and incorrect statements about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was discovered by a student in year three (Klimm and Robertson, 2007, p. 4). I read further and tracked down the list of books highlighted for deselection, and among them found one which I questioned the need to remove¹ (WASLA, 2024). This led me to consider how criteria are used for the deselection of problematic or unsuitable material, as well as the tensions which lie between Right of Access and Duty of Care. In selecting and deselecting content, librarians and educators are faced with the choice protecting students from difficult or offensive ideas versus providing them the opportunity to examine them through a critical lens.

(1 Please note – the list is publicly available, and the site it appears on notes that it has been updated since the original list was created, so it is unclear who marked the book I am discussing here for deselection.)

Librarians have a duty to protect the rights of their readers to “free reading” by “ensuring that censorship does not take place in their collections” while simultaneously protecting their students’ wellbeing. (School of Information and Communication Studies, 2025, para. 1).  However, Rumberger (2019, para. 9) argues “Content management implicitly assumes that young children should be sheltered from critical conversations about the world around them” and points out that children are capable of recognising injustice, are aware of systemic poverty, and can use “writing to convey their thoughts about the surrounding world.”

Photo by Ujesh Krishnan on Unsplash

Even if a resource demonstrates offensive, dated attitudes, there may sometimes be an argument for keeping it. It may serve as evidence of historical attitudes now challenged, discredited and outdated, but which still tell the story of the past. Certain offensive terms need to be understood as “historical terms not descriptive terms for their classmates” (Barnes, 2023, para. 5). In the case of more recent material, removing it may result in a lost opportunity to demonstrate how incorrect or offensive material can be challenged, and its veracity interrogated.  Teachers have a duty to equip students with the skill of applying a critical lens to false and offensive content, which is an ever-increasing problem in the changing media landscape.  “We must educate for critical thinking, fostering the spirit and the critical sense. Not a domesticating education, but one that forms citizens capable of reading between the lines, of detecting fallacies, of arguing without vociferating. One that trains for methodical doubt and not for slavish obedience.” (Requiem for critical thinking, 2025)

In the case of the collection review undertaken at the Brisbane primary school described above, the book which sparked the review was an obvious choice for deselection, but when I saw a book by Henry Reynolds, it seemed a less obvious contender.  I did not know what criteria were used by the librarian undertaking the review, so decided to consider both books against the criteria I developed as part of my studies as well as the AIATSIS Guide to evaluating and selecting education resources (AITISIS, 2022).

My own selection criteria are:

• RELEVANT (Supports curriculum , Will be well-used)
• SUITABLE (Ease of use, Suits reading age and ability of audience, High quality – content and format)
• ACCURATE and AUTHORITATIVE (Content accurate and author reputable, Content clearly identifiable as factual or fictional, Content current, Australian focus or context)
• INCLUSIVE (Positive images of gender, disability, cultural and ethnic groups where applicable, Developed by or with, and accurate representation of, Australian First Nations People, and otherwise meets criteria outlined by Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (2022))

The sections from the AITISIS Guide relevant for the two books in questions are:

• PARTCIPATION (of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the content development)
• POSITIONING (of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the resource)

The title which sparked the collection review was The Australian Aborigines: Peoples Under Threat, by Helen L Edmunds – published by Wayland Press in 1995. It has a suggested intended audience of primary and intermediate students. All I could discover about the author was from a description on Amazon (n.d.) “Helen L. Edmunds trained as an anthropologist and biologist, and now works with young people in Brighton.” An article in the Daily Mail picked over some of the specific offensive and incorrect statements made in the book, which I won’t go into but which you can access from the reference list below. The reason given for its deselection by the librarian is: “This is a very disturbing book. Framing of Aboriginal people as ‘many’ reinforces stereotypical views. Talks of ‘Aborigines’ and no language groups.” (WASLA, 2024)

This matches up with all I have been able to learn about this book, and when assessed against my criteria and that of the AITISIS Guide, it fails across the board:

(RED = does not meet criteria,  ORANGE = Partially meets criteria, GREEN = Meets criteria)

• AITISIS:
  • There is no evidence of participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the content creation
  • Claims made in the book are offensive and inaccurate
  • False, racist stereotypes are present and reinforced
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and language groups are not acknowledged, but all peoples are lumped together as “Aborigines”
  • Despite being a book written by an author with some evident sympathy for her subject, the impacts of colonisation are minimised and discussed in a cursory way, and the tone is patronising
• My criteria:
  • It does not support the curriculum
  • It may be of an appropriate reading level for its audience, but its many offensive inaccuracies presented as statements of fact make it unsuitable
  • It is not accurate, and its author is not an authority
  • It has not been created in consultation with First Nations people

The title which jumped out at me as deserving of greater consideration before deselection was North of Capricorn: The untold story of Australia’s North by Henry Reynolds, published by Allen & Unwin in 2003.

The reason given for the book’s removal was: “Often refers to the Indigenous people as ‘aliens’ or ‘coloured aliens’. Photographs of mixed-race children referred to as ‘piebald’ children, or ‘mongrels’. Depicted as loafers and a concern for racial mixture in schools.” (WASLA, 2024)

Henry Reynolds is a well-known and respected Australian historian who has devoted his professional life to examining Australian history with an emphasis on reconciliation and truth-telling. He is widely regarded as the first Australian historian to attempt to understand and examine Australian colonial history from a First Nations perspective, the frontier wars, and Aboriginal resistance (Ryan, 2008, p. 2). He had a long friendship with Eddie Mabo and was instrumental in Mabo’s decision to make the native title claim with led to Mabo vs Queensland in 1992 (Ritter, 2008, p. 394). The reason given for its deselection did not make sense to me, so I looked more closely at the book. It examines race relations in the tropical north of Queenland at the time of Federation. It indeed contains some offensive and derogatory descriptions of mixed-race, South-East Asian, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when quoting primary sources, because it is making an academic historical examination of race relations, racism, representation, and discrimination during a particular time and place in history. On the face of it, it appears that this title was judged without any consideration of the context in which the descriptions occurred, or a broader consideration of the content of the book, and the history it is examines.

Considered against the AISIS Guide, and my own criteria, the decision to deselect is not so obvious as the first example:

• AITISIS:
  • I was only able to examine excerpts and reviews of the content, so it was difficult to assess whether there was consultation with First Nations people, however the references indicate that First nations voices are present in the text. As it is an historical treatise, I am not sure a lack of direct consultation is a reason to remove the book entirely.
  • False, racist stereotypes are present, but quoted in primary sources and situated within a historical context, rather than presented as facts – this may warrant a cultural sensitivity warning, not removal.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are depicted in photographs with nations and language groups are not always acknowledged – there is context and reason for the images to be included, and as they are historical artefacts, may not have had acceptable descriptions attached to them.
  • The book has been rigorously researched, and the author is an acknowledged authority.
• My criteria:
  • Depending on the school library context (primary or secondary) it may support the curriculum.
  • It is an academic level text so would not be suitable for inclusion in a primary school library but may be appropriate for senior secondary history students.
  • It is well researched, and the author is an acknowledged authority
  • It was difficult to assess whether there was consultation with First Nations people, but the references indicate that First nations voices are present in the text.

Photo by Ujesh Krishnan on Unsplash

I think this is a suitable title to be included in a secondary school library collection with cultural sensitivity warnings attached, but not a primary school collection, and I believe this example highlights the need for careful, mindful consideration when selecting and deselecting, as opposed to the blanket removal of a resource based on the presence of a derogatory term. With regards to how the book should be included, I think the example of AITSIS itself is relevant. North Of Capricorn: The Untold Story Of Australia’s North is part of AITSIS own Rare Book and Research Collection. Resources included there rather than in the general collection may be “restricted due to their cultural content, rarity, value or physical condition.”

Amazon. (n.d.). Peoples Under Threat Hb Hardcover – 31 December 1995. Retrieved May 5, 2025 from https://www.amazon.com.au/Peoples-Under-Threat-Helen-Edmunds/dp/075021421X

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). (2022). AIATSIS Guide to evaluating and selecting education resources. AITSIS. https://aiatsis.gov.au/education/guide-evaluating-and-selecting-education-resources

Barnes, C. (2023, February 22). School library culling is not ‘book burning’, but there are dangers – and I should know. Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/education/school-library-culling-is-not-book-burning-but-there-are-dangers-and-i-should-know-20230222-p5cmn1.html

Edmunds, H.L. (1995). Australian Aborigines: Peoples under threat. Wayland.

Klimm, K., & Roberston, D. (2007). How an old book created a commitment to better represent First Nations Australians. Scis Connections(117), 4-5. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-117/how-an-old-book-created-a-commitment-to-better-represent-first-nations-australians/

School of Information and Communication Studies. (2025). 4. Other Considerations of Selection [Course materials]. ETL503, Brightspace. https://learn.csu.edu.au/d2l/le/sequenceLauncher/50305/View

Requiem for critical thinking. (2025). In CE Noticias Financieras (English ed.). ContentEngine LLC, a Florida limited liability company.

Reynolds, H. (2003). North of Capricorn : the untold story of Australia’s north. Allen & Unwin.

Ritter, D. (2008). Tilting at doctrine in a changing world: the three editions of Henry Reynolds’ The Law of the Land. Journal of Australian Studies, 32(3), 393–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050802294133

Rumberger, A. (2019). The elementary school library: Tensions between access and censorship. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(4), 409–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949119888491

Ryan, L. (2008). Race, Nation, History: A Conference in Honour of Henry Reynolds, Canberra, 29-30 August 2008. Labour History (Canberra), 95(95), 247–249. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/stable/27516321

Stevens, K. (2020, October 1). REVEALED: The shocking comments about indigenous Australians found in outdated children’s books still stocked in school libraries. Daily Mail Australia. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8792737/Shocking-comments-Aboriginals-childrens-books-stocked-school-libraries.html

West Australian School Library Association (WASLA). (2024). Decolonising Your Library.  Retrieved May 5, 2025 from https://www.wasla.asn.au/decolonising-your-library/