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Yorro Yorro: Original Creation and the Renewal of Nature: Rock Art and Stories from the Australian Kimberley
In a remarkable collaboration, Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai and photographer Jutta Malnic rekindle a story that reaches back 60,000 years, constituting the oldest memory of humankind. Illustrated with more than 120 color plates, Yorro Yorro tells of the Wandjina creation spirits of the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.
234 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 11, 2014
I have read this book many times and only recently did I look on Good reads to see what other people thought,
I feel this book is an amazing historical account. It has captured David Mowaljarlai in his confusion between his traditional and new life and throughout the accounts of the misunderstandings between him and his co author - who not only was not Australian, even English was a second language, nevertheless she was the bridge.
Davids Mowaljarlai's angst is clear but he takes so close to understanding a relationship between stories and humans and nature that is hard to step back from.
This is a powerful story, one which we (the world) don't clearly understand yet. We need to keep David's story close to us because it is part of understanding the future.
I feel this book is an amazing historical account. It has captured David Mowaljarlai in his confusion between his traditional and new life and throughout the accounts of the misunderstandings between him and his co author - who not only was not Australian, even English was a second language, nevertheless she was the bridge.
Davids Mowaljarlai's angst is clear but he takes so close to understanding a relationship between stories and humans and nature that is hard to step back from.
This is a powerful story, one which we (the world) don't clearly understand yet. We need to keep David's story close to us because it is part of understanding the future.
December 3, 2023
I enjoyed the three different aspects of the book, which includes photos and diagrams, the oral history and stories from the Kimberly wandjina region, and the travelogue/book preparation story. It was a privilege to read the aboriginal history and stories of the rock art from areas I have visited as well as the sharing of traditional knowledge. I confess that there were some parts I didn't really understand, but there were other parts that were profound and deeply meaningful. The book is unusual, but easy to read and an enjoyable experience.
August 22, 2025
Having just traveled in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, I was keen to know more about the people whose lives were brutally upended by the arrival of cattlemen and farmers. My experience as a storyteller made the sharing of the dreaming and myths all the more fascinating, as I could compare the stories I read to other ways in which people around the world have explored and explained life and the cosmology. Thank you to those who have so generously shared the teachings held in this book.
November 4, 2024
This is a brilliant, must read book for people curious, for people studying, for anyone with a passion for what the world's losing culture-wise.
A Australian friend knew I was writing a book with an aboriginal character and sent me the book (evidently you can't get in the USA) for reference purposes. It is a true gift as it filled so many holes in my knowledge and created so many more needing to be filled.
Wonderful, informative, compassionate, entertaining read.
A Australian friend knew I was writing a book with an aboriginal character and sent me the book (evidently you can't get in the USA) for reference purposes. It is a true gift as it filled so many holes in my knowledge and created so many more needing to be filled.
Wonderful, informative, compassionate, entertaining read.
September 12, 2014
The last gasp of a dying culture.
This book is part travelogue, part art exhibit and part informal anthropological study, as photographer Jutta Malnic is guided through the Australian bush by David Mowaljarlai, one of the last Ngarinyin elders to be connected to the traditional Ngarinyin way of life.
What starts out as a journey to photograph prehistoric rock-paintings of Wandjina (creator spirits), evolves in to something much more; Malnic is taken by the traditional stories told by her Aboriginal guides who lead her through the bush, and she recounts these experiences and stories often in the words of Mowaljarlai himself.
It becomes clear through the course of the book that Mowaljarlai considered it all-important that these stories be written down, since his was one of the last generations who learned them at the knee of an oral traditional stretching back for tens of thousands of years. He wanted the future generations to have the benefit of this unbroken line of wisdom which extends beyond the last ice age, and this book is his attempt to set down that legacy before it disappears.
The subject is fascinating and the characters colourful (including a true Aboriginal bushman who randomly disappears in to the outback along with his tyrannical pet emu who, in the words of Malnic, "obeys but one master"), but the book suffers a bit from a lack of context, presumably because the mythos of the Ngarinyin is not well known to outsiders. There were a number of times when I found myself lost amidst a welter of symbols and totems that are only partially explained. The book also has a few formatting and editing errors, and as Malnic is not a native English speaker, the prose oscillates between eloquent and idiosyncratic.
Still, despite its minor flaws Yorro Yorro is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in traditional knowledge, indigenous cultures, or adventure in the great outdoors.
This book is part travelogue, part art exhibit and part informal anthropological study, as photographer Jutta Malnic is guided through the Australian bush by David Mowaljarlai, one of the last Ngarinyin elders to be connected to the traditional Ngarinyin way of life.
What starts out as a journey to photograph prehistoric rock-paintings of Wandjina (creator spirits), evolves in to something much more; Malnic is taken by the traditional stories told by her Aboriginal guides who lead her through the bush, and she recounts these experiences and stories often in the words of Mowaljarlai himself.
It becomes clear through the course of the book that Mowaljarlai considered it all-important that these stories be written down, since his was one of the last generations who learned them at the knee of an oral traditional stretching back for tens of thousands of years. He wanted the future generations to have the benefit of this unbroken line of wisdom which extends beyond the last ice age, and this book is his attempt to set down that legacy before it disappears.
The subject is fascinating and the characters colourful (including a true Aboriginal bushman who randomly disappears in to the outback along with his tyrannical pet emu who, in the words of Malnic, "obeys but one master"), but the book suffers a bit from a lack of context, presumably because the mythos of the Ngarinyin is not well known to outsiders. There were a number of times when I found myself lost amidst a welter of symbols and totems that are only partially explained. The book also has a few formatting and editing errors, and as Malnic is not a native English speaker, the prose oscillates between eloquent and idiosyncratic.
Still, despite its minor flaws Yorro Yorro is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in traditional knowledge, indigenous cultures, or adventure in the great outdoors.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews