Storymen by Hannah Rachel Bell

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Faint mark on right foredge. Interior and binding are still excellent.

What do the artistic works of acclaimed author Tim Winton and eminent Ngarinyin lawman Bungal (David) Mowaljarlai have in common? According to Hannah Rachel Bell they both reflect sacred relationship with the natural world, the biological imperative of a male rite of passage, an emergent urban tribalism, and the fundamental role of story in transmitting cultural knowledge.

In Bell's four-decade friendship with Mowaljarlai, she had to confront the cultural assumptions that sculpted her way of seeing. The journey was life-changing. When she returned to teaching in 2001, Tim Winton's novels were featured in the curriculum. She recognised an eerie familiarity and thought Winton must have been influenced by traditional elders to express such an 'indigenous' perspective.

She wrote to him. This resulted in four years of correspondence and an excavation of converging world views—exposed through personal memoir, letters, paintings, and conversations and culminating in Storymen. (book flap)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers, please note that this book may contain descriptions and/or images of people who have passed away.