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 the transmission of 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 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 4 years of correspondence and an excavation of converging world views - exposed through personal memoir, letters, paintings and conversations and culminating in Storymen.
Storymen
Description
Table of Contents
List of illustrations and photographs; Glossary; Acknowledgements; Prologue; Characters and country; Story; Law in nature; Male rite of passage; Urban tribalism; Bibliography; Index.
Author Description
Hannah Rachel Bell's four-decade friendship with Mowaljarlai and the Ngarinyin has produced far-sighted co-cultural initiatives in education, publication and cultural tourism. An activist for sustainable cultural, social and economic relationships, Hannah now writes full-time from her home in rural Victoria.