Position Doubtful: mapping landscapes and memories

ISBN: 1925321681

Author: Mahood, Kim

Condition: New

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 VICTORIAN PREMIERS LITERARY AWARDS FOR NON-FICTIONThis is a beautiful exploration of friendships and landscape and the complexities of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.Imagine the document you have before you is not a book but a map. It is well-used, creased, and folded, so that when you open it, no matter how carefully, something tears and a line that is neither latitude nor longitude opens in the hidden geography of the place you are about to enter.Since the publication of her prize-winning memoir, Craft for a Dry Lake, in 2000, writer and artist Kim Mahood has been returning to the Tanami desert country in far north-western Australia where, as a child, she lived with her family on a remote cattle station. The land is timeless, but much has changed: the station has been handed back to its traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; and Aboriginal art has flourished.Comedy and tragedy, familiarity and uncertainty are Mahoods constant companions as she immerses herself in the life of a small community and in groundbreaking mapping projects. What emerges in Position Doubtful is a revelation of the significance of the land to its people-and of the burden of history.Mahood is an artist of astonishing versatility. She works with words, with paint, with installations, and with performance art. Her writing about her own work and collaborations, and about the work of the desert artists, is profoundly enlightening, making palpable the link between artist and country.This is a beautiful and intense exploration of friendships, landscape, and homecoming. Written with great energy and humour, Position Doubtful offers a unique portrait of the complexities of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.PRAISE FOR KIM MAHOOD[Mahood] is a talented writer whose mastery of the language is absolute. The combination of an artists eye, a mapmakers precision, and a wordsmiths playfulness makes for a work of captivating beautya significant and timely work.-The Weekend AustralianAn extraordinary excavation of the relationship, past and present, between settlers and indigenous Australians, deeply grounded in this alluring tract of desert, but with relevance for us all.-The Monthly