Let's Talk Kinship


Book Description

This book explores how understanding the Aboriginal kinship system in Australia can better inform policy and practice in social work. It is based on the author's PhD research with the Larrakia and Warumungu Peoples of the Northern Territory, which looked at the role of kinship in their lives. The book also discusses respectful understandings of knowledge and research, and the place of the researcher inside their research.




Kinship with All Life


Book Description

Is there a universal language of love, a "kinship with all life" that can open new horizons of experience? Example after example in this unique classic -- from "Strongheart" the actor-dog to "Freddie" the fly -- resounds with entertaining and inspiring proof that communication with animals is a wonderful, indisputable fact. All that is required is an attitude of openness, friendliness, humility, and a sense of humor to part the curtain and form bonds of real friendship. For anyone who loves animals, for all those who have ever experienced the special devotion only a pet can bring, Kinship With All Life is an unqualified delight. Sample these pages and you will never encounter "just a dog" again, but rather a fellow member of nature's own family.




Sand Talk


Book Description

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, 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, 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. 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 include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.




What Is Your Story?


Book Description

What is Your Story? is an engaging, colourful book that gives children permission to discover their unique journey of adoption or kinship. The book’s goal is to normalize the questions children have, while at the same time normalizing the need to ask them. Divided by activity pages, each chapter can be read independently, and even out of order, in an effort to focus on each child’s specific story. This book can help: -Parents, caregivers, and other adults involved in the adoption or kinship process to have open, honest discussions with children about their unique stories. -Birth parents who want to talk about adoption and kinship with birth children they are not living with. It can help children understand their unique story of why they are not living together with their birth parent(s) and who their birth family is. -Professionals who are preparing children for adoption or kinship placements, as well as therapists working with children who are living through adoption or kinship processes. Special note to parents/caregivers Designed as a fun way to reinforce the content that you have just read together, the activity pages between the chapters are also a natural way to stop reading if you or the child are feeling overwhelmed. This book is more of a journey than a story and sometimes you or your child may need to stay on a chapter until it is comfortable to continue, until all the feelings are felt, or until all the questions are asked. Just like other journeys, detours and construction delays are normal and even expected. Some families might need to reach out to community resources to help manage their feelings and that is encouraged. There are as many ways to read this book, as there are butterflies!




UnClobber: Expanded Edition with Study Guide


Book Description

Armed with only six passages in the Bible—often known as the "Clobber Passages"—the conservative Christian position has been one that stands against the full inclusion of our LGBTQ siblings. UnClobber reexamines each of those frequently quoted passages of Scripture, alternating with author Colby Martin's own story of being fired from an evangelical megachurch when they discovered his stance on sexuality. UnClobber reexamines what the Bible says (and does not say) about homosexuality in such a way that sheds divine light on outdated and inaccurate assumptions and interpretations. This new edition equips study groups and congregations with questions for discussion and a sermon series guide for preachers.




Lets Talk About: CCVAB


Book Description

This is the updated version of Lets Talk About Child to Parent Violence to recognise that Childhood Challenging, Violent or Aggressive Behaviour (CCVAB) in the home involves more than parents. CCVAB affects everyone in the home, children as well as any other adult. Childhood Challenging Violent or Aggressive behaviour in the home is gaining wider recognition across society leading to an 'opening up' of the lives of families but in the real world little has changed for families. This book is relevant to professionals and parent/carers or those who want to gain a better understanding of Childhood Challenging, Violent or Aggressive Behaviour (CCVAB). CCVAB can be diagnosed as a cognitive disorder identified by the World Health Organisation as a 'Conduct Disorder within the context of the family' yet this diagnosis has not been used for children so far. CCVAB is most usually thought of as Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (APVA) but this overlooks the age when most CCVAB starts - at the age of 6-9 years. For families this means they are left unsupported until children reach adolescence when the behaviour has escalated and become entrenched, something that could have been prevented had earlier recognition been made. Childhood Challenging, Violent or Aggressive Behaviour (CCVAB) is an umbrella term for a range of acronyms previously used to identify children's challenging, violent or aggressive behaviour in the home. Previous acronyms such as CPVA or APVA focus on violence and abuse towards the parent themselves yet evidence repeatedly shows this is not always the case and sibling abuse or property destruction can also happen. We look to open up understanding and highlight how listening to families is the first step of developing support for these families and remove preconceived views about who these families and children are. We consider CCVAB against new information about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), children with Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND), Neurological development and Learning Difficulties to bring attention to the many ways that Childhood Challenging, Violent or Aggressive Behaviour can happen. This book looks at what is known and what is emerging to help provide better understanding. the impact on families living with CCVAB is immense, by including parents views these families explain what living with CCVAB is for them in the real world and how little support is available to them and their family




Becoming Kin


Book Description

We find our way forward by going back. The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all "home." Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to "unforget" our history. This remarkable sojourn through Native and settler history, myth, identity, and spirituality helps us retrace our steps and pick up what was lost along the way: chances to honor rather than violate treaties, to see the land as a relative rather than a resource, and to unravel the history we have been taught.




Grandmother Fish


Book Description

Where did we come from? It's a simple question, but not so simple an answer to explain—especially to young children. Charles Darwin's theory of common descent no longer needs to be a scientific mystery to inquisitive young readers. Meet Grandmother Fish. Told in an engaging call and response text where a child can wiggle like a fish or hoot like an ape and brought to life by vibrant artwork, Grandmother Fish takes children and adults through the history of life on our planet and explains how we are all connected. The book also includes comprehensive backmatter, including: - An elaborate illustration of the evolutionary tree of life - Helpful science notes for parents - How to explain natural selection to a child




The Kinship of Secrets


Book Description

From the author of The Calligrapher's Daughter comes the riveting story of two sisters, one raised in the United States, the other in South Korea, and the family that bound them together even as the Korean War kept them apart.




I Am a Bird


Book Description

On her daily bike ride with her dad, a bird-loving little girl passes a woman who frightens her—until she discovers what they have in common. I am a bird. Ca-Caw! Ca-Caw! Every day, a little girl rides to school on the back of her father's bike. As they twist and turn through the streets, the little girl spreads her arms like wings and sings her birdsong for all to hear. But when they pass a strange woman in blue who carries a mysterious bag, the girl goes quiet until the woman is out of sight. One day, when they’re running late, the little girl discovers what the woman does with her bag each morning—a surprise that transforms her wariness into a feeling of kinship to be celebrated. Hope Lim’s simple text and Hyewon Yum’s delicate, expressive illustrations create a touching story that encourages readers to embrace our similarities rather than focus on our differences.