Murriyang: Song of Time, by Stan Grant

Acclaimed author and journalist Stan Grant writes very personally about faith and Aboriginality.

After decades spent roaming the globe as a journalist, covering wars and disasters, Wiradjuri man Stan Grant has turned his back on politics and media to search for peace through faith. Murriyang (meaning “Skyworld” - home of the creator spirit, Baiyaame, or God) fuses Christianity with Indigenous beliefs. In Grant’s telling, Baiyaame-God existed before, or outside,  the power structure that is the Christian Church. Indigenous people have always known God. 

​“When I hear stories of Jesus, I hear our story. Jesus was a dark-skinned man in a land of empires - oppressed and colonised: a tribal man. I hear the story of someone speaking back to power. I hear the words of an ancestor.”

There is a rather Hamlet-esque tone to Murriyang - Grant sounds world weary. Sick of politics, sick of the media. And like Hamlet, sick of words: “I am tired of words of certainty, tired of polled words, words with dollar signs in front of them, funded words. Reconciliation is not a word. Not anymore…What once were words are now antiseptic.”

While Murriyang is a book that seeks personal peace and emancipation from perpetual turmoil by aligning oneself with the universe and Baiyaame-God, the polemics of Grant’s previous books still come through. There is an underlying tone of anger with the world, with the injustices done to Australia’s First Nations. The book is hence a bit of a mix, travelling from rage to spiritual transformation. It feels like Grant has one leg stepping towards the light, with one leg still left behind in the gross material world of petty politics and naked self-interest. He most definitely wants out.

Interspersed among all of these philosophical and spiritual ruminations, are chapters titled “Babiin” (father), devoted to Grant’s ailing father, Stan Grant Sr. These are touching sketches of his father’s life and struggles, his wisdom and generosity of spirit.

Murriyang will appeal to the religious and non-religious alike. It is sometimes a bitter book, but overwhelmingly it fulfills its brief of guiding the reader to a place of oneness and forgiveness. Stan Grant is one of the nation’s best writers, tackling a difficult subject with maturity and erudition. 

Murriyang: Song of Time, by Stan Grant. Published by S & S Bundyi. $39.99

DEC 24