Tradition, Truth and Tomorrow

Book excerpt: 'I am trying to light the fire in our young men and women . . . the flame will burn and intensify - an immense smoke, cloud-like and black, will arise, which will send off a signal and remind people that we, the Gumatj people, are the people of the fire. There are people of the fire around Alice Springs - and I reach out to them, too. We can then burn united, together.' Tradition, Truth & Tomorrow is 'no mere essay. It is an existential prayer,' writes Noel Pearson. Galarrwuy Yunupingu tells of his early life, his dealings with prime ministers, and how he learnt that nothing is ever what it seems. And behind him, he writes, 'the Yolngu world is always under threat. This is a weight that is bearing down on me; at night it is like a splinter in my mind.'