Sand Talk

A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living.

As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective grounded in pattern thinking, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently?

In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions from a living oral culture, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. 

In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives, offering a path to a more connected and sustainable way of life. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things.

Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world.

Sand Talk includes 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.

In this mind-expanding book, Yunkaporta reveals a more sustainable and connected way of thinking:
Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Go beyond artifacts to understand the living processes that have sustained Aboriginal cultures for millennia and how they can be applied to our modern world.Complex Systems: Learn to see the world not as a collection of objects, but as a dynamic web of relationships—from the patterns of creation to the crises of civilization.Decolonizing Thought: A powerful framework for challenging the assumptions of Western progress and finding a more authentic way to live in relation to the world around you.The Yarning Method: Discover how the Aboriginal custom of yarning, a structured process of dialogue and story, can create and transmit knowledge more effectively than linear, print-based methods.