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Beyond the Meeting of the Waters: A Yorta Yorta Life Story
Author(s): Wayne Atkinson (Author), Catherine Guinness (Author)
- Publisher: Melbourne University Press
- Publication Date: October 7, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 0522881017
- ISBN-13: 9780522881011
Book Description
Yorta Yorta Elder Wayne Atkinson’s storyline begins, like thousands of generations before him, on the banks of a river, but it would take him to the halls of higher learning and a lifetime of activism to further the empowerment of his people.
For Atkinson, education is a life-giving river that can be traced back to the teachings of his great grandfather and his Elders. This eventually led him to a university education and he became a much-loved teacher of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, where he pioneered the concept of Oncountry Learning.
An essential voice of his generation, Atkinson has been at the forefront of Aboriginal cultural renaissance in Victoria since the 1980s, when Kooris asserted their rights to self-determination. His advocacy for human rights has contributed to widespread reform. He also played a pivotal role in the Yorta Yorta Native Title land claim and was a commissioner with the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Beyond the Meeting of the Waters is a penetrating and deeply humane insight into the power of the voice, the spear of the pen and the potential of collective organisation.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Catherine Guinness was born in England of Irish and English ancestry with connections to the Guinness family line in Ireland. Her family migrated to Sydney, where she completed a science degree. She worked on racial equality with West Indian communities in England and, back in Australia, has worked extensively with Aboriginal communities, especially on adult education, and with women and refugees. She is the author of Rubber Justice, which chronicles her grandfather’s humanitarian work in the Congo, and A Haunting Silence, which seeks the truth about her great grandfather, a landowner in Tasmania at the time of the Black War.
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