The First Sunrise is a companion volume to The Dreamtime and The Dawn of Time; two books which have been one of the greatest publishing successes of recent years. The concept of those two books - and of The First Sunrise - was developed through an association between the famous ethnologist Charles Mountford and the artist Ainslie Roberts.

Both men have an intimate knowledge of the Australian outback. Mr Roberts has made extensive painting tours through remote regions, and Mr Mountford spent many years on research into the lives of the Aboriginal peoples. During that time, he collected many of the myths with which the Aborigines explain the creation of the world and all that lives and lies therein.

This book contains a further thirty-two new paintings by Ainslie Roberts based on Aboriginal mythology. Charles Mountford has once more written an introduction and his interpretation of the myths.