Reviewed Work(s): Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy by Katherine Ellinghaus

Abstract

This book’s title refers to a “chilling sound that calls ancestors from their sleep. It is also a strategic manoeuvre to reclaim authority” (130). In Aṉangu this is called “Tirkilpa,” a sound that would be heard before a battle begins. It is a sound that resounded across the Australian continent during the nineteenth century as warriors rose up to defend their law and Country. As in the past, Indigenous art today continues this claim of authority, each a part of the discursive practice of culture and its inference to action in time. Rattling Spears explains a key process by which Indigenous people in Australia commence and create space for themselves in the Western world. This is done while ..