Ysola Best
Born
Ysola Mary Best

(1940-11-15)15 November 1940
Beaudesert, Queensland
Died19 May 2007(2007-05-19) (aged 66)
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Aboriginal elder and author
Known forResearching and preserving the language, history and culture of the Yugambeh people

Ysola Mary Best (15 November 1940 – 19 May 2007) was an Australian author and elder of the Yugambeh people. Best is known for her works and role in preserving the language, history and culture of the Yugambeh. She wrote about aboriginal culture and history. Most of her published works are about the Yugambeh language group of South East Queensland.

Early life and education

Born on 15 November 1940, Best was the youngest child of Edith Graham and Stanley Yuke. Her grandmother Jenny Graham, was an aboriginal elder of the Yugambeh people. Best spent her childhood in Southport in Queensland.[1][2][3]

Best attended the Star of the Sea Convent school in Southport. She graduated from University of Adelaide in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal Studies and the following year was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Community Museum Management from James Cook University.[4]

Career

Best spent most of her life researching and writing about the Yugambeh. Along with her sister, Patricia O'Connor Best worked to preserve the Yugambeh traditions and culture. In 1985, Best and her sister Patricia O'Connor successfully lobbied the University of Queensland to repatriate the skeletal remains of their ancestors from the Broadboach burial grounds. The sisters worked towards establishing the Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Centre at Beenleigh which opened in 1995.[5][1]

In 1997, Best and Alex Barlow published Kombumerri - Saltwater People. The book detailed the history of the Kombumerri people and also documented Best's own experiences and family history.[6][7]

She also wrote articles for the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. In 1994, she gave the opening address in Beaudesert at the Royal Historical Society of Queensland conference. Her paper “Aboriginal and early settler relations on the Logan and Albert Rivers: an Aboriginal view” was subsequently published in the Society's journal.[8][9]

In 2005, Best, along with her sister-in-law, Candace Kruger, and Patricia, wrote and published Yugambeh Taiga, which documents the music traditions of the Yugambeh people.[10][11]

Best worked at the State Library of Queensland and was on the State Library of Queensland Aboriginal Advisory Committee from 1993 to 2000.[12]

Personal life

Best married Robin Best in 1962. The couple had two sons, Hague and Shannon. In 1980, Best and her husband moved to Tamborine Mountain, the traditional lands of the Wangerriburra clan of the Yugambeh people. She spent most of her later years on the Mountain, writing and researching about the history of her people.[13][14]

She died of cancer on 19 May 2007 at the age of 66.[15]

In 2011, the Kungala building at the Yugambeh Museum was dedicated to her posthumously. Some of her works are also held at the museum.[16][17]

Works

  • Best, Ysola. (1994). AN UNEASY COEXISTENCE: AN ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE OF “CONTACT HISTORY” IN SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND.[18]
  • Best, Ysola. Jebbribillum Bora Ring: Our Learning Place, appears in Rory O'Connor Yugambeh: In Defence of our Country: mibun wallul mundindehla malinah dhagun 1993. Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture, Queensland.[19]
  • Best. Ysola "Bilin Bilin - King or Eagle?" in Poignant Regalia: 19th Century Aboriginal Breastplates & Images: a Catalogue of Aboriginal Breastplates Held in Public. Regional and Private Collections in New South Wales. Victoria. Tasmania. Queensland. South Australia. Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.[20]
  • Best, Ysola. "Aboriginal and early settler relations on the Logan and Albert Rivers: an Aboriginal view. Paper presented to Royal Historical Society of Queensland. Conference (1994: Beaudesert, Qld). Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland.
  • Best, Ysola (1997). Kombumerri - Saltwater people. Alex Barlow. Port Melbourne: Heinemann Library Australia. ISBN 1-86391-037-9.
  • Best, Ysola (2005). Yugambeh talga: music traditions of the Yugambeh people. Ysola Best, Candace Kruger, Patricia O'Connor. Southport, Qld.: Keeaira Press. ISBN 0-9581169-1-1.
  • Best, Ysola (1998). Borobi and his friends. Gillian Aird. Yugambeh Museum Language & Heritage Research Centre, Kombumerri Aboriginal Corp. for Culture. ISBN 0-9585570-0-4.[21]
  • Remnants of Gondwana : a natural and social history of the Gondwana rainforests of Australia. (2010). ISBN 978-0-9803113-5-8. (Posthumously)[22]

References

  1. 1 2 "Ysola Best 1940-2007. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  2. ↑ Austlit. "Ysola Best | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Garcia, Jocelyn (25 January 2020). "How two Queensland women brought an Indigenous language back from the 'dead'". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Hill, Marji (22 September 2007). "Ysola Best 1940-2007". Australian Aboriginal Studies. 2007 (2): 200–202.
  5. ↑ "Beaudesert elder receives Queensland Great Award". Beaudesert Times. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  6. ↑ Barlow, Alex (1997). Kombumerri - Saltwater people. Ysola Best. Port Melbourne: Heinemann Library Australia. ISBN 1-86391-037-9. OCLC 52249982.
  7. ↑ Austlit. "Ysola Best | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  8. ↑ National Library of Australia News. The Library. 1994.
  9. ↑ Best, Ysola (February 1995). "Aboriginal and early settler relations on the Logan and Albert Rivers: an Aboriginal view. -Paper presented to . Conference (: Beaudesert, Qld )-". Royal Historical Society of Queensland. 15 (10): 457–467.
  10. ↑ Best, Ysola (2005). Yugambeh talga : music traditions of the Yugambeh people. Candace Kruger, Patricia O'Connor. Southport, Qld.: Keeaira Press. ISBN 0-9581169-1-1. OCLC 62575169.
  11. ↑ "Singing Indigenous Language Alive - Candace Kruger - APATA Podcast". APATA - The Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  12. ↑ Wright, Judith (2006). With Love & Fury: Selected Letters of Judith Wright. National Library Australia. p. 502. ISBN 978-0-642-27625-4.
  13. ↑ Australian Aboriginal Studies: Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 2007. p. 200.
  14. ↑ "THE ABORIGINAL PAST - Ysola Best". biodiversity.com.au. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  15. ↑ "Ysola Best 1940-2007, Marji Hill - Biography". Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
  16. ↑ Beaudesert Times. September 2007- June 2017. https://beaudesertmuseum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Beaudesert-Times-Index.pdf
  17. ↑ Selected bibliography of material on the Yugambeh / Yugumbir language & people held in the AIATSIS Library https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.650.7962&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  18. ↑ Best, Y. (2011, January). An Uneasy Coexistence: An Aboriginal Perspective of ‘Contact History’ in Southeast Queensland. Aboriginal History Journal, 18. doi:10.22459/ah.18.2011.08
  19. ↑ Austlit. "Jebbribillum Bora Ring : Our Learning Place | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  20. ↑ Cleary, Tania; Wales, Historic Houses Trust of New South (1993). Poignant Regalia: 19th Century Aboriginal Breastplates & Images : a Catalogue of Aboriginal Breastplates Held in Public, Regional and Private Collections in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory : Exhibition Venues, Greenway Gallery, Hyde Park Barracks, 26 May-4 July 1993 ... Historic Houses Trust of NSW. ISBN 978-0-7310-0261-0.
  21. ↑ Best, Ysola (1998). Borobi and his friends. Gillian Aird, Yugambeh Museum Language & Heritage Research Centre, Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Initiative Program. Beenleigh, Qld.: Yugambeh Museum Language & Heritage Research Centre, Kombumerri Aboriginal Corp. for Culture. ISBN 0-9585570-0-4. OCLC 39922110.
  22. ↑ McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan; Best, Ysola; Fahey, Barbara (2010), Kitching, Roger; Braithwaite, Richard; Cavanagh, Janet (eds.), The Aboriginal values of rainforest, Baulkham Hills, Australia: Surrey Beatty & Sons, pp. 235–246, ISBN 978-0-9803113-5-8, retrieved 30 September 2022
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