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'The Town Grew Up Dancing is Wenten Rubuntja’s story. It provides a rare view of events that shaped the life of an Arrernte man who has made a major contribution to the art and politics of his time. Wenten was a key figure in the land rights movement in Central Australia in the mid-1970s and has since played a lively and formative role as an Aboriginal statesman in his home town of Alice Springs. He is highly respected for the depth and breadth of his traditional knowledge and for his unique skills as a negotiator. This book reveals the humour and wisdom of an Aboriginal man skilled at engaging in both the traditional and the contemporary worlds. The story is told in Wenten’s own words – in his first language, Arrernte, with accompanying translations, and in Aboriginal English. The book also includes the voices of many who have been close to Wenten, including members of his own family, and others who have worked with him over the years. Additional commentary is provided by linguist and artist Jenny Green and historian Tim Rowse. This fascinating and innovative book weaves together autobiography and biography in a powerful story of recent Indigenous history in Australia. The book features Wenten’s own commentary on his paintings, and photographs in colour and black and white bring his story and Alice Springs’ colourful past vividly to life.' (Source: IAD Press website)
Notes
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In English and Arrernte languages
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CAUTION: This work may contain images of people or references to Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander lore that may be considered offensive or inappropriate in some circumstances.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Caterpillar Childhoods : Engaging the Otherwise Worlds of Central Australian Aboriginal Children
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Global Studies of Childhood , vol. 3 no. 4 2013; (p. 336-379)'This article engages with the otherwise worlds of Arrernte caterpillar children living in the Aboriginal fringe camps around Alice Springs, in Central Australia. It traces the constitutive relationships between these children’s kinship identities and belongings to country, the materialities of the desert environment in which they live, the adaptive and inclusive past and present Arrernte ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’ stories, Arrernte interspecies relational ethics, and the impact of colonial dispersals and interventions upon Central Australian Aboriginal people’s lives. The author poses the question of what we might learn about children’s postcolonial natureculture relations from these caterpillar children’s otherwise worlds. Picking up on Elizabeth Povinelli’s suggestion that the mutually constituting relationship of geographies (places) and biographies (human lives), or geontologies, function as indigenous survival strategies, the author questions whether or not these adaptive caterpillar geontologies can survive in a world irrevocably changed by colonisation and subject to ongoing neo-colonial assimilatory interventions. To make these tracings and to pose these questions, the author draws upon a combination of personal recollections, traditional Arrernte stories and philosophies, and recountings of colonialist and neo-colonialist historical events.'
Source: Author's abstract.
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From the Verandah
2012
single work
essay
— Appears in: Demanding the Impossible : Seven Essays on Resistance 2012; (p. 7-25) -
Book Proves a Winner for IAD Press
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 August no. 332 2004; (p. 30) IAD Press has gained recognition in the prestigious international literary prize: The Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. The book The Town Grew Up Dancing : The Life and Art of Wenten Rubuntja has been listed as a 'Notable Book' in the non-fiction category of the award. -
Lives Like This Should Be Known
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 January 2003; (p. 17)
— Review of The Town Grew Up Dancing : The Life and Art of Wenten Rubuntja 2002 single work autobiography
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Lives Like This Should Be Known
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 January 2003; (p. 17)
— Review of The Town Grew Up Dancing : The Life and Art of Wenten Rubuntja 2002 single work autobiography -
Book Proves a Winner for IAD Press
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 August no. 332 2004; (p. 30) IAD Press has gained recognition in the prestigious international literary prize: The Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. The book The Town Grew Up Dancing : The Life and Art of Wenten Rubuntja has been listed as a 'Notable Book' in the non-fiction category of the award. -
From the Verandah
2012
single work
essay
— Appears in: Demanding the Impossible : Seven Essays on Resistance 2012; (p. 7-25) -
Caterpillar Childhoods : Engaging the Otherwise Worlds of Central Australian Aboriginal Children
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Global Studies of Childhood , vol. 3 no. 4 2013; (p. 336-379)'This article engages with the otherwise worlds of Arrernte caterpillar children living in the Aboriginal fringe camps around Alice Springs, in Central Australia. It traces the constitutive relationships between these children’s kinship identities and belongings to country, the materialities of the desert environment in which they live, the adaptive and inclusive past and present Arrernte ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’ stories, Arrernte interspecies relational ethics, and the impact of colonial dispersals and interventions upon Central Australian Aboriginal people’s lives. The author poses the question of what we might learn about children’s postcolonial natureculture relations from these caterpillar children’s otherwise worlds. Picking up on Elizabeth Povinelli’s suggestion that the mutually constituting relationship of geographies (places) and biographies (human lives), or geontologies, function as indigenous survival strategies, the author questions whether or not these adaptive caterpillar geontologies can survive in a world irrevocably changed by colonisation and subject to ongoing neo-colonial assimilatory interventions. To make these tracings and to pose these questions, the author draws upon a combination of personal recollections, traditional Arrernte stories and philosophies, and recountings of colonialist and neo-colonialist historical events.'
Source: Author's abstract.
Awards
- 2004 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize — Non-fiction Notable Book