Phone & Spear: A Yuta Anthropology by Miyarrka Media

Abstract

Reviewed by: Phone & Spear: A Yuta Anthropology by Miyarrka Media William Lempert Miyarrka Media, Phone & Spear: A Yuta Anthropology. London: Goldsmiths Press, 2019. 272 pp. Collectively authored by seven members of the Northern Australianbased Miyarrka Media, Phone & Spear is one of the most creative and unique anthropological texts to be published in recent memory. Proposing a Yuta, or "new," anthropology from Yolngu perspectives, the full color photo quality pages interweave a discursive collage of images, artwork, commentary, dialogue, and analysis that is simultaneously ahead of its time and long overdue. The two most prominent voices in the book include Yolngu elder Paul Gurrumuruwuy and Jennifer Deger. Their decade of collaboration—culminating in various art installations, films, and this book—is described by Gurrumuruwuy as a Yuta anthropology that aims to "bring different worlds into relationship," rather than what they note is the more common ethnographic goal of "revealing one world to another" (11). Deger states that at its core, this project is about how "my Yolngu friends and family use mobile phones as a technology with which to tap into—and amplify—the push-and-pull of life" (9). Crucially, she asserts that it "is a book that performs its argument; it does not simply analyze relations, it seeks to make them" (20). Thus, the form and content of Phone & Spear are deeply intertwined. While it could certainly be described as both multi-modal and polyvocal, it also pushes the boundaries of these approaches. Indeed, Deger notes that her own role more closely resembles curation than writing. While originally imagined through a dialogic structure, she describes how the book organically emerged into a Yolngu anthropological experiment in which images, textual analyses, and authorial voices are not simply juxtaposed, but [End Page 569] remixed and remediated (19). The repetition of images within cell phone screens and the stylized "text as image" patterns used for interstitial sectional transitions have echoes of pop art, while remaining fresh and original. To help readers navigate the book, each of the seven authors are associated with a color that is meaningful to them. These are used to signal individual voices through font hue and color bars along the vertical edges of textual pages. To a remarkable extent, the authors largely achieve their ambitious and admirable goal of producing "an artful anthropology… that does not expect to extract itself from the circuits of obligation, care and reciprocity through which these images were made to move… deploying images as agents of social transformation in ways that expand the possibilities of both anthropology and Yolngu art practice" (17). The pairing of phone and spear provides an agile dyad for sustaining conceptual and aesthetic coherency throughout. The authors note that in some ways this connection is not an obvious choice, but an artistic one, with Gurrumuruwuy stating that people "can understand if they think about it" (153). The authors make the case for parallel roles and functions of phones and spears; both are individualized and mobile, can be used for protection and to acquire food, and are able to quickly connect people with their environment and broader kinship networks. One of the Yolngu authors, Meredith Balanydjarrk, notes that this text itself is "like a mobile phone—everyone will connect through the book" (153). Phone & Spear is divided into two parts. The first, titled "A Yuta Anthropology," provides a thorough overview of the book's various goals. This clear distillation informs the highly creative second part, "Participatory Poiesis," which provides the majority of the text. Rather than a linear narrative or other traditional structures, it is organized around artistic themes including "Call and Response," "Worry," and "Alive!" Within these sections, the authors foster nuanced dialogues around unexpected questions such as whether a book can hum, or if love can provide a touchstone for overcoming anthropological distancing. While such engagements could easily veer into ethereal and theorized abstraction, they remain grounded by their integration within collaborative art and collective discussion. This articulates with Enid Gurunulmiwuy's assertion that the "Yolngu way of life is to make it real. Not talk-talk. Action has to happen. To make it alive" (134). Indeed, while "talk-talk" is necessarily central to...