Everywhen (ed by Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker & Jakelin Troy, UNSW Press)

Since the colonisation of Australia, representations of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous worldviews created by anthropologists, archaeologists and historians (among other disciplines) have rendered Indigenous subjectivities and ontologies as lesser. Everywhen: Australia and the language of deep history asks big questions about the concept of Indigenous temporalities. This insightful collection of essays, edited by Ann McGrath, Laura Rademaker and Jakelin Troy, considers Indigenous language use and ceremony. The phrase ‘everywhen’ was coined by anthropologist W E H Stanner to highlight an Indigenous concept of time unlike the Western construction of linear time. This book shifts Western ideologies and privileges Indigenous viewpoints, including the deep connection to Country that guides Indigenous ways of being. Everywhen provides an important contribution to counter what Stanner in his 1968 Boyer Lectures described as ‘The Great Australian Silence’, which highlighted how Indigenous Australians were virtually ignored in the writings of Australian history. It’s a book I learnt a lot from, and I daresay so will any Australian reader.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Graham Akhurst is an Aboriginal writer and academic hailing from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews