Town Talk | Getting to the heart of a story

I’m reading a book, you see. It is entitled Right story, Wrong story, written by Tyson Yunkaporta and published in late 2023. My eldest grandson, doing long-distance mind-reading again, gave this to me, and I’m telling you about it; partly because I think you’ll find it interesting, partly because I reckon it’s important, but mostly because, right now, I can’t think about anything else.

I’m a bit of a dreamer, and one of the things I think and dream about is unity in our country. I imagine us all standing respectfully together — no winners or losers, no right/no wrong, no black or white, no government interference — just us, the people of Australia, acknowledging this wonderful land, together.

Perhaps this book would help me to understand if that dream could ever become a reality.

This isn’t a book review

The following is from the press release, kindly forwarded to me by Maddy Gerber at Text Publishing:

Right Story, Wrong Story extends Yunkaporta’s explorations of how we can learn from Indigenous thinking. Along the way, he talks to a range of people including liberal economists, memorisation experts, Frisian ecologists, and Elders who are wood carvers, mathematicians and storytellers.

And, as he argues, story is at the heart of everything. But what is the right or wrong story?

This exhilarating book is an attempt to answer that question. Right Story, Wrong Story is a formidably original essay about how we teach and learn, and how we can talk to each other to shape forms of collective thinking that are aligned with land and creation.

(By the way, The Frisian Islands are in the North Sea, off the Dutch coast. I had to look it up.)

I can’t possibly review this piece of literature. I have neither the skills nor the knowledge. When Tyson speaks to me, his reader, I understand him; he feels like a friend, and I trust him. However, when he talks to other highly educated people, like his brother, Deen, he leaves me behind, and I am breathlessly trying to catch up. So, in a couple of instances, all I’m left with is the general idea — and awe.

He is a university lecturer but doesn’t seem to like his job much. I suspect he wants to make sweeping changes to education — what is taught and how. He is also founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University. I don’t know what that is exactly; he isn’t telling me in his book.

Right story?

Here I quote directly from Tyson’s book, where he is talking with Michel, from the Frisian Islands. I knew about the Dutch dropping in, a few years ago, but the details were completely new to me.

“I get a bit of a mischievous feeling now and tell Michel it is a shame the Dutch, who landed on our shore five hundred years ago, hadn’t thought to communicate with a crane dance rather than trying to steal our women. There were brolga totem people there that day, and the entire course of world history might have been changed in a moment if they’d maybe asked a lady to dance first. They wouldn’t have had most of their crew speared, and the rest sent home with massive losses and debt from the voyage, a loss which sparked the invention of the world’s first corporation — the Dutch East India Company. An entire sorcerous arsenal of financial institutions followed, and you know how the rest of it went.”

Loved reading that — great story. (By the way, is the Commonwealth Bank a corporation? It is really struggling, you know — according to Channel 7 News, it is only making $20,000 a minute!)

However, there are very real differences between Indigenous storytelling and Western writers. Tyson suggests that “crowdsourced narratives where everybody’s contribution to the story, no matter how contradictory, is honoured and included ... the closest thing I can find in the world to the Aboriginal collective process of what we call ‘yarning’.”

Many times, when trying to sort out a story, I have found myself with contradictions, different memories, different dates. I’ve written before about how easy it can be to get incorrect information. So, I try to find the truth — or what appears to be truth. However, from Tyson’s point of view, although every detail may be accurate, it is still a wrong story; there is always another point of view, another opinion. Together, they might make a right story.

The Iceman

At times, Tyson’s writing seems to be a stream of consciousness. I get the feeling that he is treading water, getting ready for the deep dive. It is at these times that he tells us about his life and his thoughts.

At one point, he talks about the discovery of The Iceman. Many of you will remember that in 1991, a man’s mummified body was discovered, complete with clothing, weapons etc. He had lived 5300 years earlier and among his weapons was a long bow. Tyson was interested in the long bow — and so was I because the English stole it from the Welsh who, I have always thought, invented it. But, no! Not if it was in use, in Europe, 5000 years ago. Tyson’s interest was in the degree of difficulty in using it. Men need to train from childhood to be able to draw the bowstring back; it requires immense strength and often results in severe pain. Then he drops the surprising information (to me at least) that The Iceman had acupuncture points tattooed on his body.

Think about that for a moment, please. The Stone Age lasted a very long time and was reaching its end when The Iceman was around. But what does that say about life in 3000 BC? Do we know anything at all about our ‘deep past’? I’m guessing that they wouldn’t have needles and that one would simply press or massage the tattooed area. Fascinating to me!

Stories

Tyson’s book is about stories, and there are plenty. But perhaps the most enthralling and enlightening is that of Tyson himself. He is painfully honest. Scientific studies have made him wary of the spiritual because he can’t test or measure or prove it. And yet, his book is a spiritual one that contains many a ‘something’ that cannot be ignored — or proven.

He writes, “There’s nothing woo-woo about this ‘Something’ concept. I’m not manifesting these things with my positive thoughts, and neither is some god nor spirit invented in a monastery five minutes ago. When the land communicates with you and gives you everything you need, that’s just ancient, dynamic systems doing what they do (as long as you’re a part of them).”

Oh! How I’d love to take him on about this paragraph. Because, I reckon, we are all a part of something, and it doesn’t matter what you call it. I look back at my life and (reluctantly) understand that I received everything I needed — not always what I wanted. And I believe that what you need depends on your life’s purpose.

This last quote is taken from Tyson’s ‘goodbye’. It is out of context because I’m out of space.

“I’ve got your hand, though, and I give it a squeeze and you squeeze back. Our eyes meet. There is resolve growing in the relational space between us, and we reach a silent agreement. Us-two turn away and go into the world.”

If you are interested in Right Story, Wrong Story, Collins Booksellers (Maude St, Shepparton) don’t have it on the shelves right now but will happily get it for you. I heartily recommend that you get to know Tyson — because, in doing so, we learn a little more about ourselves.

That’s all for now. Next week I’ll write about something I fully understand, I promise — and may it be easy, my friends.

Marnie

Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au

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