SandTalk – An Extraordinary Reading Experience
You have heard how impressed that I am by SandTalk. Here is a review by Elke Power of Readings Monthly.
“Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk is an extraordinary reading experience. It’s both philosophical and practical, and underpinned by a compassionate yet realistic humanity. At the core of Sand Talk is a deep respect for Indigenous Knowledge, to which long-term thinking is fundamental. As Yunkaporta demonstrates, a central principle of Indigenous Knowledge and learning paradigms is looking back and recognizing patterns from the past, then learning from them. That’s an extreme simplification due to the length of this review, but as Yunkaporta convincingly argues, it is this kind and caliber of thinking that is profoundly lacking in many societies today, including in Australia, and the damage wrought upon our world in its absence is abundantly evident.
Yunkaporta writes with a clear-eyed sense of his own perspective, flaws and past failures. An academic, an artist, and much more besides, language is important to him. Like many of Australia’s First Peoples, he has a complex identity and history, and he writes, ‘I often don’t get to decide what I call myself.’ Throughout Sand Talk, he carefully shares stories of life-changing ‘yarns’ – a term he defines precisely early on – with people he has met on his extensive research travels.
Sand Talk is an engaging and singular introduction to the elements of Indigenous Knowledge, thinking, and methods of communication that Yunkaporta is in a position to share. It’s an opportunity to recognize these concepts and their history, and a generous invitation to incorporate these methods into non-Indigenous thinking for the benefit of all. It’s an unforgettable book, rich with ideas and inspiring in its conviction in the human capacity for personal change and growth. Open it to any page, read and enjoy!”
The LOC Institute is offering a series of discussions led by Elektra Porzel about Sandtalk starting on March 15th at 9amPT and every two weeks thereafter. Calls will last 60-90 minutes. We will discuss it chapter by chapter.
Questions we may explore:
- How are these concepts/practices of the Aborigines with each other in community, with the land, with nature different than our relationships with each other, with the land and nature?
- Are the concepts/practices presented something that we might adapt?
- What impact might that have in our lives?
- What if a large percentage of the human population adopted that practice…what might the impact be in how our society functions?
- What are you called to write a Creation Exercise on? What did you experience when and after you wrote your Creation Exercise? (If you are unfamiliar with the Templates of the Language of Creation, I can work with you offline to teach you how to write your Creation Exercises)
I look forward to ‘yarning’ with you!
Register here: https://www.loc-institute.com/product/becoming-a-modern-indigen-using-sandtalk-by-t-yunkaporta-and-the-creation-templates/
