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Dreamkeepers: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia
Cast a aside all things familiar and join Harvey Arden on an extraordinary spirit-journey into the minds, hearts, and dreams of australia's aboriginal peoples, custodians of the oldest culture on earth. Through haunting photographs and an exquisitely crafted narrative, dreamkeepers brings to life a world where aboriginal "Dreamtime Ancestors" -- the rainbow snake, the lightning brothers, and the mysterious wandjina, or cloud-beings-still sustain the visionary belief system of a proud ancient, and gifted people.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 9, 2019
This isn't the book I'm looking for, which was probably published in the 40's or 50's. It was mainly a book of photographs of Autralian Aboriginal people au naturel. That is to say naked in the outback. Very curious... I haven't been able to recall where of when(other than it was a long time ago) that I saw this. My recollection is that the pictures were taken by a curious and possibly amateur(i.e. not a scientist/ethnographer) visitor. Not much text as I recall. Very "odd" looking book. Super-exotic, Nat. Geographic feeling to it. Porbably belonged to my step-father. It might have been this book, come to think of it. A mystery...
December 15, 2008
Arden takes us on a journey to the Australian Outback in search of "The Dreamtime," a central part of Aboriginal culture and religion. Through Arden's journey and interview with several Aboriginal people and his own guide, Arden comes to a better understanding of the lives and struggles of Aboriginal people today. Alcoholism, poverty, social injustice, subsistence living, cultural extinction. These are the real, day to day threats and struggles of the people he meets. Some are friendly, some are rude, most are uneasy with him, which he begins to understand in terms of Aboriginal-white relations, especially with the government. Gradually the tone shifts as the purpose of the journey shifts from a National Geographic article about "The Dreamtime" to an encounter with a people that have been long and thoroughly exploited and abused by a system outside their control.
Arden, thankfully, does not offer any easy answers, or even puts any proper questions to the reader. He does a good job capturing the sense of his interviews and meetings, and seems to be concerned in earnest with giving a fair and balanced account of his experience. He makes no one heroes or villains, and tries to give an honest account. One of the things I really like about Arden was his self-disclosure, often making a point of his own awkward feeling, confusion, behaviors, etc. to give a honest and full story, and never to elicit sympathy from the reader.
I gave it three stars because I liked it, and I could have read more. I really dislike the presentation (due to the publisher perhaps? I can't imagine Arden chose it after all he wrote). The man painting himself on the cover is to catch the reader's attention as someone foreign, mysterious, basically The Other. Furthermore, the font used for the title and the other font used throughout the book give it the feel that it was meant for some elementary school library, to grab and keep a child's attention. I can't say the book is too complex or intensive for a fifth grader, but the writing seemed to be suited for an adult or at least high school audience. This just underscores the sense of dehumanizing and "Other-izing" the Aboriginal people interviewed in the book, a kind of cruel irony. Setting this terrible presentation aside, the book was well written, thoughtful and fair. I would recommend it to a general audience.
Arden, thankfully, does not offer any easy answers, or even puts any proper questions to the reader. He does a good job capturing the sense of his interviews and meetings, and seems to be concerned in earnest with giving a fair and balanced account of his experience. He makes no one heroes or villains, and tries to give an honest account. One of the things I really like about Arden was his self-disclosure, often making a point of his own awkward feeling, confusion, behaviors, etc. to give a honest and full story, and never to elicit sympathy from the reader.
I gave it three stars because I liked it, and I could have read more. I really dislike the presentation (due to the publisher perhaps? I can't imagine Arden chose it after all he wrote). The man painting himself on the cover is to catch the reader's attention as someone foreign, mysterious, basically The Other. Furthermore, the font used for the title and the other font used throughout the book give it the feel that it was meant for some elementary school library, to grab and keep a child's attention. I can't say the book is too complex or intensive for a fifth grader, but the writing seemed to be suited for an adult or at least high school audience. This just underscores the sense of dehumanizing and "Other-izing" the Aboriginal people interviewed in the book, a kind of cruel irony. Setting this terrible presentation aside, the book was well written, thoughtful and fair. I would recommend it to a general audience.
January 13, 2013
As a snapshot of Aboriginal Australia, it was certainly a reverential treatment, but the consistent narrative arc of ignorant white guy blundering irreverently through a foreign culture despite his best efforts got a little cringe worthy precisely because it was such a consistent theme.
August 27, 2017
This book is just mundane chit chats among the the author, aboriginals, and the guide.
Nothing substantial to learn about aboriginal culture, rituals,myths and etc. It's totally empty!
He wrote the book as a boring travel journal about who he met, what they said, what he saw...etc.
You think the conversations will lead to deep topics, but no. Instead you learn the aboriginals want to keep their secrets away from the "whitefellas" and the grudge they hold against them for stealing their land and the crimes they have committed against them.
Ancient Alien series Season 11 Episode 7: The Wisdom Keeper, teaches you way more in 45 minutes than this pathetic book.
Here are random parts from the passage:
"That's called Sleeping Buddha," Mike said. "What's the Aboriginal name?" "No idea. But you can be sure it's got one." "And a Dreamtime story, too, no doubt." "No doubt." He focused his lens on Waringarri, which was fading into shadows a few hundred feet below. Lights were coming on in a few of the windows, winking alluringly. "People don't see it," Mike commented. "Don't see what?" "Waringarri I'm talkin' about.
Another one:
We parked the car and walked into a scene that might have been the stage-set for an expressionistic ballet--a tableau of despair with dozens of Aboriginal men and women lurching, staggering, some sprawled, some prone, some slumped in doorways, some on their knees or haunches with arms outstretched in perpetual supplication to the few passers-by. Small children played lethargically among them, eyes crawling with flies, noses crusted with snot. Literally thousands of empty beer cans lay strewn about the street and sidewalks. The stink of alcohol, vomit and piss was unmistakable and utterly sickening. It seemed hard to believe such a place could exist. I was reeling, in shock.
Another:
"You don't smoke it?" He shook his head. "Give you a bad head you smoke it." "You mix it with ashes, don't you?" Mike asked. Thomas nodded grudgingly, obviously getting uncomfortable with the subject. "Special way. Gotta do it special way." He would say no more. THE THREE OF US sat on a rock ledge and looked out at the unreeling Dreamtime topography below us, a tremendous reddish-brown almost treeless flatland striated by long parallel lines fading off into distant haze. The lines, I knew, were actually 30-foot high red-sand dunes--the bane of early travelers--extending ruler-straight for hundreds of kilometers through the Great Sandy Desert. "So that's Yagga Yagga down there?" I asked, pointing to two small watertowers shimmering miragelike in the far distance. "Yeh, that Yagga Yagga. Way down there.
Nothing substantial to learn about aboriginal culture, rituals,myths and etc. It's totally empty!
He wrote the book as a boring travel journal about who he met, what they said, what he saw...etc.
You think the conversations will lead to deep topics, but no. Instead you learn the aboriginals want to keep their secrets away from the "whitefellas" and the grudge they hold against them for stealing their land and the crimes they have committed against them.
Ancient Alien series Season 11 Episode 7: The Wisdom Keeper, teaches you way more in 45 minutes than this pathetic book.
Here are random parts from the passage:
"That's called Sleeping Buddha," Mike said. "What's the Aboriginal name?" "No idea. But you can be sure it's got one." "And a Dreamtime story, too, no doubt." "No doubt." He focused his lens on Waringarri, which was fading into shadows a few hundred feet below. Lights were coming on in a few of the windows, winking alluringly. "People don't see it," Mike commented. "Don't see what?" "Waringarri I'm talkin' about.
Another one:
We parked the car and walked into a scene that might have been the stage-set for an expressionistic ballet--a tableau of despair with dozens of Aboriginal men and women lurching, staggering, some sprawled, some prone, some slumped in doorways, some on their knees or haunches with arms outstretched in perpetual supplication to the few passers-by. Small children played lethargically among them, eyes crawling with flies, noses crusted with snot. Literally thousands of empty beer cans lay strewn about the street and sidewalks. The stink of alcohol, vomit and piss was unmistakable and utterly sickening. It seemed hard to believe such a place could exist. I was reeling, in shock.
Another:
"You don't smoke it?" He shook his head. "Give you a bad head you smoke it." "You mix it with ashes, don't you?" Mike asked. Thomas nodded grudgingly, obviously getting uncomfortable with the subject. "Special way. Gotta do it special way." He would say no more. THE THREE OF US sat on a rock ledge and looked out at the unreeling Dreamtime topography below us, a tremendous reddish-brown almost treeless flatland striated by long parallel lines fading off into distant haze. The lines, I knew, were actually 30-foot high red-sand dunes--the bane of early travelers--extending ruler-straight for hundreds of kilometers through the Great Sandy Desert. "So that's Yagga Yagga down there?" I asked, pointing to two small watertowers shimmering miragelike in the far distance. "Yeh, that Yagga Yagga. Way down there.
March 1, 2019
Very interesting look into the ancient and current culture and customs of he Aboriginal peoples, other than the brief bit seen in Crocodile Dundee (the language used reminded me of that movie ;) ).
A Ngarinyin elder said this to the "Awtha" and his outback adventure companion~
"What's important is beyond all understanding ~ that's the first thing you must understand.
"So I'll talk to you fellas awhile and speak of some things. Ask me questions if you like . . . but remember the same question's got different answers for different people. Maybe they're true for you, maybe not. And never forget ~ everything's a mystery anyway. Once it stops bein' a mystery it stops bein' true."~ David Mowaljarlai
A Ngarinyin elder said this to the "Awtha" and his outback adventure companion~
"What's important is beyond all understanding ~ that's the first thing you must understand.
"So I'll talk to you fellas awhile and speak of some things. Ask me questions if you like . . . but remember the same question's got different answers for different people. Maybe they're true for you, maybe not. And never forget ~ everything's a mystery anyway. Once it stops bein' a mystery it stops bein' true."~ David Mowaljarlai
January 21, 2022
There is not a lot of substance to this book. I was keeping in mind it was written in 1995 and things have changed, but it did not help. The author was by far the worst type of narrator of this type of work. Journalist with a pretentious white guy white savior attitude. I swear he spent three full pages talking about how his feelings were hurt by the first aborginal person who called him out on his bullshit.
This book is mostly conversations between the author and the people he meets. The topics he chooses to write about fall between 'no shit sherlock' and 'the only people who wouldn't have figured this out fall between the ages of 0 and 16 months.'
This might have been a very interesting book if the author had been less of an arrogant toe rag.
This book is mostly conversations between the author and the people he meets. The topics he chooses to write about fall between 'no shit sherlock' and 'the only people who wouldn't have figured this out fall between the ages of 0 and 16 months.'
This might have been a very interesting book if the author had been less of an arrogant toe rag.
July 18, 2019
Heavens!! This book is going on my faves shelf. It's so honest and so real. The author is not afraid to show himself a fool and I LOVE IT. Through his humility and candor, I was able to learn alongside him. Five million stars.
July 29, 2012
Dealing with the mysteries of communities other than our own is a delicate matter. Beyond the more obvious impediments to clear understanding such as language, there lies a world of hidden signs and meanings that only reveal themselves slowly, and only then to the sure-footed. Castaneda has written about such experiences, and others have tried with varying degrees of success. Harvey Arden has, all in all, written a remarkable book about the Australian aborigine and his attempt to find a means of expression after the drab interlude of cultural effacement that followed colonisation.
Are we really surprised that these folk have voices of their own? Some of the more remarkable native or aboriginal people of the late twentieth century, are former alcoholics and derelicts. Seen in another life, just a few years ago, most of Western humanity would have found it degrading to even go near them. And yet these were just superficial aspects of the person, which can be seen past if the intention to look is there. Mr. Arden is such a seeker, obviously. I remember thinking at the time I read "The Dreamkeepers," what an amazing thing it was for this to have been written by an American visitor to Australia. The author seemed to have such a grasp of the people and their environment that I felt, surely it must have taken a local writer to develop this degree of understanding. But no, relative stranger to Australia that he was, Mr. Arden had the human touch required and succeeded where, in my opinion, few others would have. This is a fine book and yet another that does not deserve, at all, to be out of print.
Are we really surprised that these folk have voices of their own? Some of the more remarkable native or aboriginal people of the late twentieth century, are former alcoholics and derelicts. Seen in another life, just a few years ago, most of Western humanity would have found it degrading to even go near them. And yet these were just superficial aspects of the person, which can be seen past if the intention to look is there. Mr. Arden is such a seeker, obviously. I remember thinking at the time I read "The Dreamkeepers," what an amazing thing it was for this to have been written by an American visitor to Australia. The author seemed to have such a grasp of the people and their environment that I felt, surely it must have taken a local writer to develop this degree of understanding. But no, relative stranger to Australia that he was, Mr. Arden had the human touch required and succeeded where, in my opinion, few others would have. This is a fine book and yet another that does not deserve, at all, to be out of print.
March 8, 2011
I've been toting this book around for 10 years and finally read it. Our neighbor in Montgomery wrote it and gave it to Dad. I was putting it off because it sounded terrible. But I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be a bunch of Dreamtime stories or the "happy native" look at the Aboriginal Australians, both of which have been done many times before. But it was more of a series of interviews of Aboriginies from Western Australia. Which were really intersting, although it would have been nice to have more young people included (most of them interviewed were really old).
And initially I thought that it was really tacky to be pushing another book that he'd written, I was won over seeing how the author shared his previous book (on Native Americans) with the Aborginies that he met. So, that one's going on the list too.
And initially I thought that it was really tacky to be pushing another book that he'd written, I was won over seeing how the author shared his previous book (on Native Americans) with the Aborginies that he met. So, that one's going on the list too.
October 19, 2008
It took a long time to get into this book, probably because I had read Arden's Spiritkeepers, and felt a certain false humility in his quest. This time the author found it impossible to get the kind of spiritual stories that he was so intent on collecting and I'm kind of glad that he didn't. What little I've read about Australia's outback comes mostly from National Geographic (the author's employer), so I guess some vague curiosity kept me plodding along. What I enjoyed most were the vignettes of aboriginal people just being themselves and the author's descriptions of the outback.
August 1, 2011
Usually not a huge nonfiction guy, but I really enjoyed this book. I do agree with some of the critics that at points, Arden seems to think a little to highly of himself, but overall, I found the narration to be compelling and witty and most importantly the stories told by the people were fascinating.
March 11, 2009
I read this after Message from Forever, and it gives a different picture of contemporary Aboriginal life, but it is also a book which is hopeful. I found it to be a bit of a letdown after reading Message from Forever, but it was a worthwhile read all the same.
December 2, 2009
An anthropological quest for the oldest recorded culture on earth. It turns the spotlight on the stark reality of Australian aboriginals' plight.
November 15, 2015
I finished reading this book and am finding myself already missing the people within the covers.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews