AustLit

'The title of this book refers to the shimmering effect produced in the distinctive art forms of the Aboriginal clans (Yolngu) of north-eastern Arnhem Land in Australia. In bark and rock painting, for example, fine cross-hatching designs create a unique pulsating sensation of light and movement, which has, for some time now, attracted intense interest from both anthropologists and the international art world. This critical ethnography of the place of media in the Yolngu community in Gapuwiyak explores how media technologies such as video are being adopted as a new means of producing this shimmering effect and examines the significance of this effect in Yolgnu culture and identity. The aim of the book’s in-depth analysis of this new media practice is to guide non-Aboriginal readers towards an understanding and appreciation of Indigenous media in Yolngu terms.' (Introduction)

'Shimmering Screens is a study of the impact of Western technology in (and not necessarily on) a remote Aboriginal community, a memoir of how fieldwork changes the anthropologist, and a meditation on the ways in which Yolngu and balanda (white Australians) can interpenetrate each other’s worlds. Deger, a research fellow in anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney, has written a brilliant book that analyses the ways in which one man, Bangana Wunungmurra, took up the challenge of making video in the Arnhem Land community of Gapuwiyak to reinvigorate Yolngu rom (Law) and pursue a personal redemption.' (Introduction)