Position Doubtful

'There is something profound about the directness and clarity with which Kim Mahood writes about her art, and her life, in particular her relationship with the land she grew up in and on, and her relationship to the indigenous people who have lived on that land much longer than she. As Mahood writes of - quite literally - building a map that is both geographic, social and cultural, you feel that she has, ever so gently, shifted your view of the world. Position Doubtful is a remarkable, intelligent and mature work. I really loved it.' - Sophie Cunningham;'Position Doubtful leaps straight onto the shelf occupied by the great accounts of inland Australia. Theatrical, confessional, masterly descriptive, it is hard to find one word to sum up the achievement. Possibly it lies in the word character: in the brave character of the author herself, and in the spacious, beautiful, and unforgiving character of the Australian landscape and the people who dramatically take on its shape in these pages.' - Roger McDonald;'Kim Mahood is an astonishing treasure: an accomplished artist and writer who is equally well-equipped to navigate both Aboriginal and settler Australia. Her lyrical yet unsentimental memoir is a story of honouring the knowledge that two cultures have mapped upon each other, a lesson the entire globe needs to learn.' - William L. Fox, Director, Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art;'[Kim Mahood's] clear-sighted journey across the cultural fault-lines of her past also resonates with a contemporary political edge, deepening our understandings of identity and the human condition.' - 2013 Peter Blazey Fellowship judges;'The rich pulse of country makes the heart quake with recognition. Mahood belongs to country and it blesses her with that most refined human sensitivity, doubt. She is not tempted to improve or judge the communities of her country because she prefers to love them; the whole buckled, lovely and jumbled chaos of the land.' - Bruce Pascoe;'With her artist's eye, Kim Mahood tracks the small quotidian details of lived life in the desert, but it is her poet's voice which brings that land to life in ways that are entirely new and unexpected.' - John Wolseley;'Position Doubtful, like Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man, is required reading for anyone interested in contemporary Aboriginal Australia. Mahood has lived too long among Indigenous people to idealise or peer through theoretical rose-coloured glasses at what should be. She is also honest about her own shortcomings when approaching Aboriginal culture and life. This is a memoir that opens the heart to understanding.' - Books + Publishing