Sunny & Shadow wins diversity award
Palyku creator Professor Helen Milroy has won the ASLA DANZ (Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand) Children’s Book Award with her chapter book Sunny & Shadow.
The DANZ Children’s Book Award recognises children’s books that challenge stereotypes and celebrate diverse and marginalised people and communities. It is designed to support educators and families when looking for books that provide accurate, fair and authentic representations of disability, culture, class, LGBTQIA+, race and religion in a way that is relevant, obvious and important to the story. Helen’s picture book The Boab Tree also made the shortlist.
Children’s Publisher Cate Sutherland said the books provided a First Nations perspective on the special connection to the place we call home and what happens when that gets severed. She said, ‘Both of Helen’s books are about getting separated from Country and finding your way home again, with a lot of help from your friends. In The Boab Tree, it’s Boab who accepts help. In Sunny & Shadow, it’s Sunny who takes responsibility for getting her favourite dingoes back to Country. I love how these books show the way creativity, empathy and courage all align to empower a change in circumstance.’
Helen Milroy said with regards to both books, ‘I would like children and families to see the strengths of Aboriginal culture shining through in helping all of our children to have hope and courage; be guided by strength and kindness; and never forget who they are and where they came from. We gain so much by recognising those we live alongside and how we live together.’
Professor Milroy was the WA 2021 Australian of the Year and was joint winner of the 2020 Australian Mental Health Prize.
The award is sponsored by ASLA, Book People and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. More information is available here: https://www.thedanzchildrensbookaward.com/about
The winners were announced on 25 July 2026 at a special ceremony at the Global Change Institute in Queensland.
The Boab Tree and Sunny & Shadow are available in all good bookstores and online.
