Drawing upon deep understanding of indigenous traditions, Sand Talk contains the author’s personal reflections on techniques for living and learning. When other (typically white) writers offer up this kind of content, it’s usually packaged as self-help, memoir, or a blend of the two. Yunkaporta’s approach is different, based on ‘yarning’ and, for me at least, this makes the material so much more accessible than those other genres. Sand Talk includes plenty of personal anecdotes, but as a whole it doesn’t make Yunkaporta the central focus the way a memoir would.

Much of Sand Talk is fascinating, mind-expanding stuff, but it can also be frustrating at times. Yunkaporta often makes sweeping generalisations to illustrate his points, while at the same time decrying the modern tendency towards overly simplistic modes of thought. The tagline, ‘How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World’ is rather overblown as a description of the book’s contents—it offers no such grand solutions but is nevertheless full of valuable wisdom with wide potential application. The ‘sand talk’ of the title—a style of visual mnemonic, the kind easily scratched out in the sand with a stick—alone is so strikingly simple and useful as to make this a worthwhile read, but there’s lots more here to chew on as well.

Tyson Yunkaporta examines ways of using Indigenous Australian knowledge to gain wisdom and a better understanding of how the world works. He provides ides for different thinking about the inter-connectedness of everything and suggests how contemporary living endangers the natural order of things.

It is a very philosophical book written with a lot of heart but if you don’t come at it from a position of respect for this ancient culture it will not be an easy read. There is some wonderful knowledge here that I am still coming to grips with. This is an important book that I will no doubt be reading again.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book like this- exploring the world as we know through lenses of Aboriginal people. This is a book where even the known can become unknown, as it takes you on the journey of reevaluating your values and the way you look at the world.
I had multiple moments when I was reading and thinking I came across something I never realised although it was right there, in front of me, for my entire life.
At the same time, I think this book has something special, as I feel like I could reread it multiple times and always stumble over something I haven’t fully understood before.
I am giving 4 stars, as it took me some time to get into it and the book wasn’t taking me in. What is a shame, as the idea of it is great and a lot of people could take something out of it.

I wish to thank Tyson Yunkaporta, Text Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Sand Talk How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World in exchange for an honest review.

Tyson draws the reader into his reflections on yarns and philosophical musings encompassing a very broad variety of subjects. It is mostly very readable literature, occasionally I found myself lost in some of the arguments, I feel I would benefit in reading this a second time in the near future.

This book challenged me to open myself to other ways of thinking and exploring solutions to challenges around me. I know nothing about Aboriginal culture, people and customs- nothing that I could call the truth save for stories or documentaries that I may have skimmed through at some point while watching the television.

The author examines most of what we experience and use now, the global systems, our worldview from the indigenous knowledge perspective and this makes such a thrilling read.

I could connect to this because being a native Luo, and learning English I found it quite limiting as a language for whereas in my mother-tongue there are three different ways to call "cat," and in English it's just one.

This book requires time to read and fully grasp the insights that the author is calling you to experience and understand. Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.