Mununjali author retells Flinders Street Station story through First Nations lens

A new picture book by Mununjali author Melissa-Jane Fogarty offers a First Nations retelling of one of Melbourne’s most recognisable landmarks, centring the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung connection to a place known long before the railway arrived.

Narm-Jaap: A Flinders Street Station History, illustrated by Dylan Finney (a proud descendant of the Yanyuwa and Mara clans) was published this month by Lothian Children’s Books, an imprint of Hachette Australia. It is the second title in the publisher’s Our Lands series, following Tubowgule: A Sydney Opera House History.

The book invites readers to reconsider Flinders Street Station not just as a transport hub but as a site of deep cultural and historical significance. For the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, the Traditional Owners of the land on which the station stands, the area is and has always been Country. The narrative steps back to Narm-Jaap as a meeting place for the people of the Kulin Nation, follows the arrival of British colonisers, and traces the site’s many forms through to the present day.

In an Instagram post marking the release, Fogarty said Wurundjeri presence remained at the heart of the place.

“To the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, the Traditional Owners of the land that Flinders Street Station sits on, your voices, your spirit and your ancestors remain in this place, and will forever do so” Fogarty said.

Reviewing the earlier Tubowgule volume, Good Reading Magazine called it “an important book”, while the National Indigenous Times described it as “a rich and inclusive exploration of the land beneath one of Australia’s most famous landmarks”. Early publisher material for Narm-Jaap highlights “an inspiring reflection of the cultural importance of sharing music, art and culture”.

Fogarty is a children’s book author, illustrator and freelance editor of Mununjali descent, living on Darkinjung Country in New South Wales. She holds a Master of Publishing from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Newcastle, and is a graduate of the Children’s Book Academy and the Australian Writers’ Centre.

Writing on her Substack ahead of the launch, Fogarty said the story did not begin with European arrival.

“That history begins way before 1788 when the British arrived. The connection the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the wider Kulin Nation have with this significant site has endured and will continue” she said.

She added that her hope was the book would have “a positive impact with its truth-telling and exploration of place from more than a Western perspective”.

Truth-telling has been a focus of Indigenous storytelling, education and policy work in Australia in recent years, with state-based processes including the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria documenting the history of First Peoples since colonisation. Children’s literature has emerged as one of the more accessible vehicles for that work, with publishers and First Nations creators producing books that locate iconic Australian landmarks within longer Indigenous histories.