Holding Yawulyu: White Culture and Black Women's Law

by Zohl de Ishtar

This deeply moving, historical account of indigenous culture—specifically, the elder women of Wirrimanu—offers profound insight into white culture's impact on indigenous women's Yawulyu (law) and an analysis of the competing interests that can make indigenous and white interactions complex, painful, and fraught with problems.

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[SA Lillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished! Holding Yawulyu, white culture and black women's law...is many things. provides insight into the elder women's lives, several who didn't come into contact with the white world until well into adulthood. It explores and challenges the misunderstandings from western (patriarchal) enculturation about the importance of women's business and even basic differences about dogs, rubbish and the concept of 'dirt'. It chronicles a two-year slice-of-life living with Wirrimanu's (Balgo) women elders to assist in passing law onto the community's younger generations, and critiques the problems that have emerged when white bureaucracy and black culture meet. Gender, race and power relations are examined in this book. Its experience is not limited to Wirrimanu, and the author reminds readers of their responsibility to examine conscious and unconscious participation in the current status quo and is a call to replace national cultural amnesia with a genuine will to work together. It's a dense but a necessary read for anyone wishing to understand more about just some of the systemic and bureaucratic difficulties faced by remote communities. Anyone working with women in remote communities will recognise issues brought up here.

In terms of writing style, this is a book that at times requires some dedicated attention, more so the final chapters. In other chapters, the pages fly and draw you in. The author is very well-informed, articulate, concise, succinct and specific with her views; each page, each chapter serves to drive home the importance of Kapululangu's work, and demands that's women's culture is respected, in no uncertain terms. It is a powerful polemic, can be a bit repetitive at times but do stick it out. The experiences shared here are sadly not uncommon. An educational must-read.

Note: The endnotes are a great read as well. A great resource