“Jakarda wuka (Too many stories): narratives of rock art from Yanyuwa Country in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria”

This project concerns funding received from the McArthur River Mine's Community Benefits Trust to support the publication of the book, “Jakarda wuka (Too many stories): narratives of rock art from Yanyuwa Country in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria”

Synopsis:

Fully illustrated, Jakarda Wuka (Too Many Stories) draws on a combined 70+ years of collaborative research involving Yanyuwa Elders, anthropologists, and an archaeologist to tell a unique story about the rock art from Yanyuwa Country in northern Australia’s southwest Gulf of Carpentaria.

Australia’s rock art is recognised globally for its antiquity, abundance, distinctive
motifs and the deep and abiding knowledge Indigenous people continue to hold for
these powerful symbols. However, books about Australian rock art jointly written by
Indigenous communities, anthropologists, and archaeologists are extremely rare.

Combining Yanyuwa and western knowledge, the authors embark on a journey
to reveal the true meaning of Yanyuwa rock art. At the heart of this book is the
understanding that a painting is not just a painting, nor is it an isolated phenomenon
or a static representation. What underpins Yanyuwa perceptions of their rock art is
kinship, because people are kin to everything and everywhere on Country.

Jakarda Wuka highlights the multidimensional nature of Yanyuwa rock art:
it is an active social agent in the landscape, capable of changing according to
different circumstances and events, connected to the epic travels and songs of
Ancestral Beings (Dreamings), and related to various aspects of Yanyuwa life such
as ceremony, health and wellbeing, identity, and narratives concerning past and
present-day events.

In a time where Indigenous communities, archaeologists, and anthropologists are
seeking new ways to work together and better engage with Indigenous knowledges
to interpret the “archaeological record”, Jakarda Wuka delivers a masterful and
profound narrative of Yanyuwa Country and its rock art.

Authors:

li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu (Yanyuwa Elders) are an Aboriginal Australian people
of the Northern Territory who live in the coastal region inclusive of and opposite to
the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.

Liam M. Brady is an archaeologist, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor
in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University.

Associate Professor John Bradley is an anthropologist and linguist, and deputy
director of Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University.

Professor Amanda Kearney is an anthropologist and human geographer in the
School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

This project concerns funding received from the McArthur River Mine's Community Benefits Trust to support the publication of the book, “Jakarda wuka (Too many stories): narratives of rock art from Yanyuwa Country in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria” (published by Sydney University Press)

Authors:

li-Yanyuwa li-Wirdiwalangu (Yanyuwa Elders) are an Aboriginal Australian people
of the Northern Territory who live in the coastal region inclusive of and opposite to
the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.

Liam M. Brady is an archaeologist, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor
in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University.

Associate Professor John Bradley is an anthropologist and linguist, and deputy
director of Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University.

Professor Amanda Kearney is an anthropologist and human geographer in the
School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/178093