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Main : non-fiction, human rights, Indigenous, ecology

ISBN: 9781876756574
0.470 kgs
210 x 140 mm
388 pp

Holding Yawulyu: White Culture and Black Women's Law
Zohl de Ishtar

Mapping inter-cultural relationships as they are played out in a remote Aboriginal settlement in Western Australia's Great Sandy Desert, this book challenges White Australians to reconsider their relationship with Indigenous peoples. Unpacking White cultural practices, it explores the extraordinary difficulties which Indigenous women face when they attempt to maintain and pass their cultural knowledge, customs and skills on to their children and youth.

From 1999 to 2001, Zohl dé Ishtar lived and worked intimately with a group of thirteen women elders to establish a vibrant intergenerational cultural knowledge transmission program: the Kapululangu Women's Law and Culture Centre. Through this profound experience Zohl identified 'Living Culture', the cultural energy which is created when individuals live their culture to its fullest expression enabling them to transform their worlds even when to do so seems impossible. Her profound radical feminist analysis of the socio-cultural context surrounding this Indigenous women's initiative challenges White attitudes and behaviours and offers a deeper comprehension to those who aspire to be involved in collaborative projects with Indigenous peoples. A lyrical and passionate book.

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'…it stands as a valuable historical reference and as a memoir of a courageous woman. Zohl dé Ishtar was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of a body of 1000 women who have committed their lives to peace. This book reflects that commitment, and offers valuable insight into the perseverance-through-struggle of the amazing Kapululangu women elders of Wirrimanu.'

Source: Traffic
Reviewer: Robyn Hillman-Harrigan

'… a moving, important study, not least of the bureaucratic and political obstacles to developing genuinely new relationships between White and Indigenous cultures.'

Source: Westerly
Reviewer: David Carter

'As dé Ishtar notes, the paucity of the written word can barely encompass the richness of the lived experience: 'dirt, rubbish, dogs and violence are only the tip of the iceberg in the challenges facing White attempts to dismantle our cultural biases and prejudices'. Nevertheless, her self-reflective discussion of the difficulties as well as the tanscendental joys of dwelling in another culture offer her readers, many of whom lack the fortitude for two years in a tin shed marooned from our native tongue, some memorable insights.'

Source: Reviews in Australian Studies
Reviewer: Chilla Bulbeck

See all 5 reviews...

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