'Tiwi people have plenty to be proud of. This little tropical island community has more than its fair share of surprising stories that turn ideas of Australian history upside down.
'The Tiwi claim the honour of having defeated a global superpower. When the world's most powerful navy attempted to settle and invade the Tiwi Islands in 1824, Tiwi guerrilla warriors fought the British and won. The Tiwi remember the fight and oral histories reveal their tactical brilliance.
'Later, in 1911, Catholic priest Francis Xavier Gsell styled himself as the 'Bishop with 150 wives'. Gsell said he 'purchased' Tiwi women and 'freed' them from traditional Tiwi marriage, and Tiwi girls grew up into devoted Catholics. But Tiwi women had more power in their marriage negotiations than the missionaries realised. They worked out how to be both Tiwi and Catholic. And it was the missionaries who came around to Tiwi thinking, not the other way around.
'Then there are stories of the Tiwi people's 'number one religion': Aussie Rules Football; the eldest living Tiwi woman, Calista Kantilla, remembers her time growing up in the mission dormitory; and Tiwi Traditional Owner Teddy Portaminni explains the importance of Tiwi history and culture, as something precious, owned by Tiwi and the source of Tiwi strength.
'Tiwi Story showcases stories of resilience, creativity and survival, as told by the Tiwi people.' (Publication summary)
'From the cover to its conclusion, Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up leads readers with care and consideration through a nuanced and varied understanding of Australian histories. Tiwi Story offers outsiders physical evidence of oral histories that have been well known and distributed among communities in the northern Countries. In so doing, Tiwi Stories challenges the narratives on which White Australia crafts, hones and weaponises an identity of ownership not only over land, waterways and skies, but also over stories and knowing the past. Tiwi Story, as the Tiwi historian and educator Mavis Kerinaiua tells readers, is a history intended to act as a form of truth-telling leading to “healing” (1)—a point that carries even greater significance after the recent “no” vote on an Australian Voice to Parliament.' (Introduction)
'Just to north of Darwin is the country of the Tiwi people, spread over Bathurst and Melville Islands. These two new books give voice to Tiwi oral traditions and to the power and resonance within that tradition of orality that encompasses song, narrative, and the ways in which they sustain family and relationships to ancestors and to kin.' (Introduction)
'Just to north of Darwin is the country of the Tiwi people, spread over Bathurst and Melville Islands. These two new books give voice to Tiwi oral traditions and to the power and resonance within that tradition of orality that encompasses song, narrative, and the ways in which they sustain family and relationships to ancestors and to kin.' (Introduction)
'From the cover to its conclusion, Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up leads readers with care and consideration through a nuanced and varied understanding of Australian histories. Tiwi Story offers outsiders physical evidence of oral histories that have been well known and distributed among communities in the northern Countries. In so doing, Tiwi Stories challenges the narratives on which White Australia crafts, hones and weaponises an identity of ownership not only over land, waterways and skies, but also over stories and knowing the past. Tiwi Story, as the Tiwi historian and educator Mavis Kerinaiua tells readers, is a history intended to act as a form of truth-telling leading to “healing” (1)—a point that carries even greater significance after the recent “no” vote on an Australian Voice to Parliament.' (Introduction)
