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'‘That’s the way it is with us mob. We were brought up to talk kind of sideways. That’s the respectful, true Aboriginal way.’
'Reg Dodd grew up at Finniss Springs, on striking desert country bordering South Australia’s Lake Eyre. For the Arabunna and for many other Aboriginal people, Finniss Springs has been a homeland and a refuge. It has also been a cattle station, an Aboriginal mission, a battlefield, a place of learning and a living museum.
'With his long-time friend and filmmaker Malcolm McKinnon, Dodd reflects on his upbringing in a cross-cultural environment that defied social conventions of the time. They also write candidly about the tensions surrounding power, authority and Indigenous knowledge that have defined the recent decades of this resource-rich area.
'Talking Sideways is part history, part memoir and part cultural road-map. Together, Dodd and McKinnon reveal the unique history of this extraordinary place and share their concerns and their hopes for its future.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Reg Dodd and Malcolm McKinnon, Talking Sideways: Stories and Conversations from Finniss Springs
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 2 2019;
— Review of Talking Sideways : Stories and Conversations from Finniss Springs 2019 single work autobiography 'Talking Sideways was composed from conversations which unfolded over several years between Abrunna elder Reg Dodd, and artist and writer Malcolm McKinnon, on Dodd’s ancestral land on Lake Eyre in South Australia. Told episodically in alternating voices, it is about this land, Finniss Springs, and its complex, turbulent history. Familiar episodes of white incursions into Aboriginal country—explorers, anthropologists, missionaries, pastoralists, miners, land battles, grog and associated violence—entwine with exceptions and twists particular to this place and its people. Most notable among these exceptions are Dodd’s grandparents, his Abrunna grandmother Nora Beralda, ‘a proper tribal woman,’ and Scottish pastoralist grandfather, Francis Dunbar Warren, who went to Finniss Springs in 1918. Their long and strong marriage created there for a time a rare and respectful exchange between the traditional owners and newcomers to this land. It is also an intricate mapping of this land by a traditional owner versed in its character and law, and a whitefella seduced by its beauty and its ways which have drawn him back for three decades.' (Introduction)
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Reg Dodd and Malcolm McKinnon, Talking Sideways: Stories and Conversations from Finniss Springs
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 2 2019;
— Review of Talking Sideways : Stories and Conversations from Finniss Springs 2019 single work autobiography 'Talking Sideways was composed from conversations which unfolded over several years between Abrunna elder Reg Dodd, and artist and writer Malcolm McKinnon, on Dodd’s ancestral land on Lake Eyre in South Australia. Told episodically in alternating voices, it is about this land, Finniss Springs, and its complex, turbulent history. Familiar episodes of white incursions into Aboriginal country—explorers, anthropologists, missionaries, pastoralists, miners, land battles, grog and associated violence—entwine with exceptions and twists particular to this place and its people. Most notable among these exceptions are Dodd’s grandparents, his Abrunna grandmother Nora Beralda, ‘a proper tribal woman,’ and Scottish pastoralist grandfather, Francis Dunbar Warren, who went to Finniss Springs in 1918. Their long and strong marriage created there for a time a rare and respectful exchange between the traditional owners and newcomers to this land. It is also an intricate mapping of this land by a traditional owner versed in its character and law, and a whitefella seduced by its beauty and its ways which have drawn him back for three decades.' (Introduction)
- Finniss, Strathalbyn area, Fleurieu Peninsula - Lake Alexandrina, South Australia,
