Book launch
Book Launch of Unmaking Angas Downs Myth and History on a Central Australian Pastoral Station by Shannyn Palmer - Launched by Kim Mahood
When - 6pm to 7pm, Thursday 20 October
Where - 153-11 University Avenue
Australian National University, Canberra
Presented by Harry Hartog Booksellers.
About the Book
A new work of history that seeks to unmake mythologies of pioneers, pastoralism and possession in the Northern Territory
Some stories dominate how we see and interpret a place, while others are obscured from view. Angas Downs is a pastoral station in Central Australia, but pastoralism is only a fraction of what has happened there. Like all places it has accrued people and stories, in multiple layers, over time. Listening to Tjuki Tjukanku Pumpjack and Sandra Armstrong, two Aṉangu with deep and abiding connections to Angas Downs, a very different kind of place emerges from that conjured in myths and histories of pioneers and pastoralists that have shaped understandings of the past in Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory. Unmaking Angas Downs traces a history of colonisation in Central Australia by tracking the rise and demise of a rural enterprise across half a century, as well as the complex and creative practices that transformed a cattle station into Country. It grapples with the question of how people experience profound dislocation and come to make a place for themselves in the wake of rupture. Angas Downs emerges as a place of dynamic interaction and social life - not only lived in, but also made by Anangu.
MUP, 2022
About Shannyn Palmer
Shannyn Palmer is a community-engaged practitioner, researcher and writer living and working on the Ancestral lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples. She was born and raised on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in the state now known as Victoria and has also lived and worked on Wurundjeri Country and Central Arrernte Country. While living in Mparntwe and working with Aṉangu, recording the stories that form the foundation of this book, Shannyn worked for the Aṟa Iritija Project, travelling between seven communities in the southwest of Central Australia working with Aṉangu to develop and maintain the community-based archive. She has a PhD in History from the ANU and works to develop community-engaged practice and enable meaningful intercultural conversations and collaborations.
About Kim Mahood
Kim Mahood is an award-winning writer, visual artist and consultant. She is the author of two works of non-fiction, Craft for a Dry Lake (Random House 2000), and Position Doubtful – Mapping Landscape and Memory (Scribe 2016). A collection of essays, Wandering with Intent, will be published by Scribe in November 2022. Her essays have been published in art, literary and public affairs journals, and her artwork is held in state, territory and regional collections.
She has worked as a writer and consultant on national Indigenous art exhibitions, including the Canning Stock Route Art Project and Songlines for the National Museum of Australia, and has developed cross-cultural mapping projects with Aboriginal organisations in Perth, the Kimberley, Central and Northern Australia, remote South Australia and western NSW. Her mapping work is designed to foster communication and understanding between traditional custodians of country and the non-Indigenous stakeholders with an interest in the same country.
About the Event
Registration is required for this event. Accessible parking spaces are available at the Kambri underground carpark via Kingsley street . This is an in-person, indoor event. To help keep everyone safe, please ensure that you are familiar with, and follow, the advice from ACT Health regarding COVID-19. If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event. By registering for this event, you are accepting our privacy policy.