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Born under the paperbark tree: A man's life : from the land of the Lightning Brothers
novel
- GenresNonfictionBiography
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 6, 2012
I found this in a gift shop at one of the Visitors' Centres, but we had no room in luggage for books, and besides, it cost at least $20. So I took a picture of the cover, thinking I'd add it to my to-read list and I'd probably get to read it in a few years when I'd gone through all my other to-read books.
But that's not what happened. We went into the library of another Visitors' Centre… and there it was! The only book from the gift shop, looking very happy to see me.
I sat down to read it and got through 54 pages before we had to leave the Visitors' Centre, and I was a bit put-out because I knew I'd probably never get to finish it.
Well! That very day, Dad got a Kindle giftcard, and he asks me what I want on the Kindle. I asked for this one too, but it was $181 or something of the sort… we decided I'd go out and walk to the Visitors' Centre the next day— 2km.
So I got up and walked with Dad through Jabiru to get to the 2km footpath that led to the Bowali Visitors' Centre, and I took the path with nothing but a hat on my head and clothes on my back and a 500ml water bottle in my hand, and my iPod, just in case I finished faster than 2 hours and a half and needed something else to read.
I got there after 25 minutes of walking, sat down, and started reading. It's such an easy book to read— it was tape-recorded by Bill, and it shows. It feels as if he's really talking to you. They're entertaining stories, and worth reading if you're interested in what went on in the 1930s-1980s from the point of view of one man.
But that's not what happened. We went into the library of another Visitors' Centre… and there it was! The only book from the gift shop, looking very happy to see me.
I sat down to read it and got through 54 pages before we had to leave the Visitors' Centre, and I was a bit put-out because I knew I'd probably never get to finish it.
Well! That very day, Dad got a Kindle giftcard, and he asks me what I want on the Kindle. I asked for this one too, but it was $181 or something of the sort… we decided I'd go out and walk to the Visitors' Centre the next day— 2km.
So I got up and walked with Dad through Jabiru to get to the 2km footpath that led to the Bowali Visitors' Centre, and I took the path with nothing but a hat on my head and clothes on my back and a 500ml water bottle in my hand, and my iPod, just in case I finished faster than 2 hours and a half and needed something else to read.
I got there after 25 minutes of walking, sat down, and started reading. It's such an easy book to read— it was tape-recorded by Bill, and it shows. It feels as if he's really talking to you. They're entertaining stories, and worth reading if you're interested in what went on in the 1930s-1980s from the point of view of one man.
June 20, 2025
An amazing collection of yarns of the territory’s brutal and rich past. Bill’s life is definitely one to read for anyone interested in a life well lived.
December 21, 2016
This is the story about and told by Master Wardaman Storyteller, Yidumduma Bill Harvey. Recorded over a whole bunch of tapes, Jan Wositzky wrote out the entire history as closely as possible to the recorded stories.
Literally born in the bush under a Paperback tree, the history of the Northern Territory and crossing into Western Australia, was passed down through generations of storytellers like his grandfathers and uncles, and paintings in caves. Bill takes us through the first meeting between the Aborigine and the white men from Europe, reactions on both sides, and the shift of power and land ownership over the years, and how he lives in the middle.
I'm fascinated that this man had a foot in every step along the way, as the land shifted to towns, industries changed, and he learned to grow and change with them - with a great sense of humour to boot!
A peek into the culture, being shown the beauty of their history, and understanding a part of Australia's heart that I had previously known very little about, was exciting. Bill Harney has a very charming way of talking about so many people he met along the way, and the hardship and incredible adventures he experienced.
At the end of the book there is a mention of the movie Land of the Lightning Brothers, which I really have to see now. With a quick Google search I found some shorter clips on YouTube, that let me "meet" the storyteller, and I look forward to more.
Highly recommended.
Literally born in the bush under a Paperback tree, the history of the Northern Territory and crossing into Western Australia, was passed down through generations of storytellers like his grandfathers and uncles, and paintings in caves. Bill takes us through the first meeting between the Aborigine and the white men from Europe, reactions on both sides, and the shift of power and land ownership over the years, and how he lives in the middle.
I'm fascinated that this man had a foot in every step along the way, as the land shifted to towns, industries changed, and he learned to grow and change with them - with a great sense of humour to boot!
A peek into the culture, being shown the beauty of their history, and understanding a part of Australia's heart that I had previously known very little about, was exciting. Bill Harney has a very charming way of talking about so many people he met along the way, and the hardship and incredible adventures he experienced.
At the end of the book there is a mention of the movie Land of the Lightning Brothers, which I really have to see now. With a quick Google search I found some shorter clips on YouTube, that let me "meet" the storyteller, and I look forward to more.
Highly recommended.
Want to read
February 22, 2009Abandoned. Good read but just wasn't that into it. Loved meeting Bill Harney, though!
September 3, 2012
Thanks Honesty- Not exactly a "must read", but certainly worth the detour.
April 17, 2021
This book was mentioned in the book Wayfinding. It is an interesting story of the life of an Australian Aborigine, Yidumduma Bill Harvey, who dictated the stories to Jan Wositsky. The stories use Australian and Aboriginal slang, words, and diction. Easy read and quite an insight into a fast-disappearing world.
Children of Aboriginal women and white men were by law taken away from the mothers and raised in foster homes. Yidumduma had a white father and black mother but the mother hid him from the authorities. He was acknowledged by his dad and saw him occasionally. He came to know the traditional customs of the Aboriginal world and the culture of European Australians.
He describes a ritual incision of the ventral side of the penis down to the urethra making what he calls a “whistle cock.” When urinating it makes a whistling sound that the girls like and it apparently make lovemaking better. The penis gets wider apparently.
https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wile...
He describes various aboriginal beliefs like taking the turd of a man and putting in inside a log with dry grass and setting it on fire, plugging up the ends of the log and then singing a sacred song and that gets mixed up with the smoke and goes into the man’s body and making his body twisted and broken.
He described how he could recite his people’s song-lines that allowed them to travel all over their country and how these song-lines were used in court for the aboriginals including him to make claims on parcels of land in their tribe’s original areas. This was made possible by the North Territory Land Rights Act of 1976 that said that Aborigines who could show an unbroken spiritual affiliation with the land could claim back unalienated Crown land.
He describes the marriage of young boys to old women who teach them everything and the boy cares for the woman and when she dies the boy, now man, takes a younger wife.
3000 Aborigines served in the ANZAC army during WWII. This was a new experience for many of the aborigines as it was the first time they were treated as equals. On the cattle stations where many of them had worked they were badly, like blacks in the US South or worse.
He talks of Afghans with camels in the Australian desert country. Indeed, they were there from the 1860’s to 1930’s!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_....
He describes how in 1968 the government said that the aborigines working on the cattle ranches had to be paid, they had previously been getting just a bit of food and coffee, and so many were told to move off. And they moved to the cities and started drinking alcohol and that became a huge problem.
A movie was made about the rock paintings in his area, ”Land of the Lighting Brothers,” and Yidumduma was asked to go speak at its premier. Some one suggested that he set up a touring company for the bush and he did where clients could look at Aboriginal rock painting and learn about life in the bush. He got permission from the Sultan of Brunei who owned some of the land to give tours on it. He traveled to England and around Australia to promote his business. I didn’t realize it but apparently the rock paintings were touched up occasionally by the Aborigines when they faded.
In sum, this is a fascinating look into an unusual Aborigines life and his spanning the culture of two worlds.
Misc:
- Aborigines were poisoned with strychnine well into the 20th century.
- Aborigines often use “he” to denote women as well as men. Uncles and aunts are referred to as fathers and mothers and cousins as brothers and sisters.
-fair dinkum – Australian indicating that something is true.
-humpy: a makeshift hut
-tucker: at meal, food
-goolie: testicle or stone
Children of Aboriginal women and white men were by law taken away from the mothers and raised in foster homes. Yidumduma had a white father and black mother but the mother hid him from the authorities. He was acknowledged by his dad and saw him occasionally. He came to know the traditional customs of the Aboriginal world and the culture of European Australians.
He describes a ritual incision of the ventral side of the penis down to the urethra making what he calls a “whistle cock.” When urinating it makes a whistling sound that the girls like and it apparently make lovemaking better. The penis gets wider apparently.
https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wile...
He describes various aboriginal beliefs like taking the turd of a man and putting in inside a log with dry grass and setting it on fire, plugging up the ends of the log and then singing a sacred song and that gets mixed up with the smoke and goes into the man’s body and making his body twisted and broken.
He described how he could recite his people’s song-lines that allowed them to travel all over their country and how these song-lines were used in court for the aboriginals including him to make claims on parcels of land in their tribe’s original areas. This was made possible by the North Territory Land Rights Act of 1976 that said that Aborigines who could show an unbroken spiritual affiliation with the land could claim back unalienated Crown land.
He describes the marriage of young boys to old women who teach them everything and the boy cares for the woman and when she dies the boy, now man, takes a younger wife.
3000 Aborigines served in the ANZAC army during WWII. This was a new experience for many of the aborigines as it was the first time they were treated as equals. On the cattle stations where many of them had worked they were badly, like blacks in the US South or worse.
He talks of Afghans with camels in the Australian desert country. Indeed, they were there from the 1860’s to 1930’s!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_....
He describes how in 1968 the government said that the aborigines working on the cattle ranches had to be paid, they had previously been getting just a bit of food and coffee, and so many were told to move off. And they moved to the cities and started drinking alcohol and that became a huge problem.
A movie was made about the rock paintings in his area, ”Land of the Lighting Brothers,” and Yidumduma was asked to go speak at its premier. Some one suggested that he set up a touring company for the bush and he did where clients could look at Aboriginal rock painting and learn about life in the bush. He got permission from the Sultan of Brunei who owned some of the land to give tours on it. He traveled to England and around Australia to promote his business. I didn’t realize it but apparently the rock paintings were touched up occasionally by the Aborigines when they faded.
In sum, this is a fascinating look into an unusual Aborigines life and his spanning the culture of two worlds.
Misc:
- Aborigines were poisoned with strychnine well into the 20th century.
- Aborigines often use “he” to denote women as well as men. Uncles and aunts are referred to as fathers and mothers and cousins as brothers and sisters.
-fair dinkum – Australian indicating that something is true.
-humpy: a makeshift hut
-tucker: at meal, food
-goolie: testicle or stone
August 16, 2020
I learned of Bill Harney from another book I was reading about Wayfinding, and how different cultures could find their way across large distances without maps, roads, or compasses. I hope I'll be able to find more books from him because he's a good storyteller. It's sad the way the Aborigines were treated by Europeans, but Mr. Harney has worked hard to preserve their culture and show people that Aborigines do have value and were actually very skilled and adept at surviving in the bush.
August 16, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. I was shocked by the actual stories but I absolutely loved being able to hear about them and learn so much rich history. It didn't take long to read but I really enjoyed it.
December 4, 2022
Fascinating, not great literature as it's written like the author is talking.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews