Another Emma and Liz Reads finished (If you want to see them all, click here.) I bought this one for myself from The Heath Bookshop then managed to get a copy for Emma (it was a bit hard to pin down!); my copy was acquired in July 2023 (Emma and Liz books didn’t count in my 2024 TBR project as they occupy a special pile of their own, we don’t read them in order and it takes us a while to get through each book, a chapter or so at a time once a week), and I am pleased to say I have now read and reviewed all 12 print books I acquired that month.
Tyson Yunkaporta – “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World”
(07 July 2023, The Heath Bookshop)
Perhaps we need to revisit the brilliant thought paths of our Palaeolithic Ancestors and recover enough cognitive function to correct the impossible messes civilisation has created, before the echidnas decide to sack us all and take over as the custodial species of this planet. (p. 3)
Regular readers will know I’ve been taking an interest in books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers for a while now, and have built up a small collection with some read and reviewed and some to come. Emma was newer to Indigenous reading so I was glad she branched out to try this one, which turned out to be full of quite chewy philosophical and scientific musings, but we coped OK and both really enjoyed it. Each chapter takes a traditional image drawn on the ground, or here, carved into a boomerang or other object, and discusses that image and the Indigenous knowledges and practices it represents. There is no formal table of contents at the front of the book, but a visual one resembling a turtle shell with all the images incorporated. He also usefully defines an Indigenous person as “a member of a community retaining memories of life lived sustainably on a land-base, as part of that land-base” (p. 42) and then he “yarns” with different people in many chapters to help himself and us to understand the topic he’s discussing – including two Sami women from Northern Europe.
Yunkaporta is keen for his readers to know that a lot of what we term modern, western science was discovered by Aboriginal peoples hundreds of thousands of years ago, and other knowledges are less familiar to western readers but profound in their meaning and use – especially all the points about families, ancestors, and people and Country being linked in circular and spiralling ways. We both admitted to getting a bit lost when we got into links between, for example, quantum theory and Aboriginal thought processes and practices, but Yunkaporta is also reassuring in his writing, telling us that he has travelled and learned but doesn’t know everything and certainly doesn’t think of himself as some kind of role model, He’s also very clear that we can’t pick and choose Indigenous practices to use for quick solutions, but we must try to see the deep patterns, concentrating on processes not content and avoiding “token inclusion of cultural clippings” (p. 114). There’s lots more interesting stuff in this book, including on gendered practices but the gender continuum and about colonial practices around the world. that would make this review too long if I discussed them.
The final chapters included a “deep visualisation” where we were to imagine ourselves and a loved one on our land, whatever that might involve, and while we’re both more separated from nature and our land than Yunkaporta is, we both found the chapter very moving and profound. The final requirement is to “Respect, Connect, Reflect, Direct – in that order. Everything in creation is sentient and carries knowledge, therefore everything is deserving of our respect” (p. 275) and I think everyone can understand that at one level.
We finished reading this last night and Em and I both said we were glad we had read it and proud of ourselves for reading it, if not always understanding, but that Yunkaporta was a kind guide, often pointing out that it’s OK to get a bit lost and not understand everything as long as you come to it with humility and give it a go. I certainly appreciated reading the book slowly, one chapter at a time, and having someone to talk to about it, and it was significantly different enough from other books by such authors that I didn’t have any advantage in understanding.
Just to recap for anyone new to the blog: my best friend and I sit down in our respective homes in London and Birmingham at the same time (usually on a Thursday after dinner) and read the same bit of the same book, while chatting about it on Messenger. We started in lockdown and decided to carry on. We always make sure we have several to go on our special TBR piles, which you can see on my State of the TBR posts, and are always adding more to the possibles list!
Our next book is Patrick Barkham’s “The Butterfly Isles”, which should make an interesting comparison with the Danish butterfly book I just read.
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
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