Drawn from the Ground

Jennifer Green is a Research Fellow in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. She has over 30 years' experience working on projects documenting indigenous languages, history and visual arts.

'It is a commonplace to note that humans communicate with one another in many different ways. It is rare, however, to encounter analyses of human communication which display analytically the complex nature of how the semiotic ensemble humans make use of may be organised. Drawn from the Ground is an outstanding example of such an analysis. Besides being a very significant contribution to our understanding of an important and interesting cultural practice among central Australian Aborigines, this book is remarkable for the insightful way in which it demonstrates how diverse semiotic modalities function in relation to one another. An extremely valuable piece of work.' Adam Kendon, University of Pennsylvania and University College London

• 1. Introduction; 2. Sand stories as social and cultural practice; 3. Catching a move as it flies: multimodal data collection; 4. Lines in the sand; 5. Body-anchored and airborne action; 6. Ordering, re-drawing and erasure; 7. Vocal style in sand stories; 8. Crossing boundaries.