Review of 'Kurlumarniny: we come from the desert' Monty Hale (Minyjun) 2012 Anne Scrimgeour (ed.); transcribed and translated by Barbara Hale and Mark Clendon: Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 230pp, ISBN 9780855758301 (pbk)

Abstract

Monty Hale (1934-2013) has left a rich history of his life in relation to the Nyulipartu people, the 1946 Pilbara strikes, Don 'Mirta' McLeod, the first independent Aboriginal school in Australia and much more. Winner of the 2012 Western Australian Premier's History Book Award, the book is an enduring Nyangumarta narrative of a time of huge adaptation for Hale and his language group. It is a collaborative production incorporating an English translation by Hale's daughter Barbara Hale and linguist Mark Clendon, with overall editing provided by historian Anne Scrimgeour. The book, more autoethnography than individualistic autobiography, captures both linguistic and historical perspective on the dynamics of social and cultural change occurring across the Pilbara landscape during one lifetime.