Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood

Imagine the document you have before you is not a book but a map. It

is well-used, creased, and folded, so that when you open it, no matter

how carefully, something tears and a line that is neither latitude nor

longitude opens in the hidden geography of the place you are about to

enter.

Since the publication of her prize-winning memoir Craft for a Dry Lake, in

2000, writer and artist Kim Mahood has been returning to the Tanami

desert country in far north-western Australia where, as a child, she

lived with her family on a remote cattle station. The land is timeless,

but much has changed- the station has been handed back to its

traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; and Aboriginal

art has flourished.

Comedy and tragedy, familiarity and uncertainty are Mahood's constant

companions as she immerses herself in the life of a small community and

in groundbreaking mapping projects. What emerges in Position Doubtful is a revelation of the significance of the land to its people - and of the burden of history.

Mahood is an artist of astonishing versatility. She works with words,

with paint, with installations, and with performance art. Her writing

about her own work and collaborations, and about the work of the desert

artists, is profoundly enlightening, making palpable the link between

artist and country.

This is a beautiful and intense exploration of friendships, landscape, and homecoming. Written with great energy and humour, Position Doubtful offers a unique portrait of the complexities of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.