TYSON YUNKAPORTA on Inviolable Lore /362
Landcape photo of a wily wily turning up red earth; Australia; (Credit: Totajla)
What beckons us, calls to us from beyond? Tuning into a magic that flows from the universe, not from an individualized self, Tyson Yunkaporta offers lucid insight into the current state of the world in this week’s episode. In maddening times of dissonance and disconnection, Tyson speaks to the need for the Right Story, for LORE. As he dives into his new book Right Story, Wrong Story, Tyson discusses rampant disinformation, the stories that prop up empire, and the need for lore that cuts through such propagandistic drivel.
This convivial and expansive conversation is a brilliant exploration and critique of the current cultural fabric, and it invites crucial questions of how we can disrupt cycles of violence, power, and greed.
Throughout the conversation, Tyson contemplates how we may open ourselves up to being beckoned outside of the ego, and how we may resist the individualizing neoliberal urge. Decolonization is not just about poetry, or word, or aesthetics, and Tyson strikes at the heart of how we (the collective we) must be materially and fiscally decolonial for the real work to be done.
“It’s a tricky old storyscape that we’re living in. We need these good yarns. We need good cautionary tales emerging, good story that grounds us in just some basic care for each other and care for our place.”
Photo of Tyson Yunkaporta by James Henry
Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar, founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and author of Sand Talk and Right Story, Wrong Story. His work focuses on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve complex issues and explore global crises.
♫ The music you heard today is “Desert Nightflower” by Leo James, generously provided by Patience Records.
Episode References
Right Story, Wrong Story by Tyson Yunkaporta | Goodreads
Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, and the Perennial Tradition | Embodied Philosophy
“Tyson Yunkaporta is reimagining Beethoven” | The Guardian
Reading Recommendations
Special Report: Stealing Indigenous Voices in Australia (w/ Tyson Yunkaporta) | Conspirituality
From the Heart: The Voice, the Arts and Australian Identity (op-ed) | Limelight
How a ‘ridiculous idea’ has become the best thing for Tyson Yunkaporta | Sydney Morning Herald
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For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.