DEADLY WOMAN BLUES WITHDRAWN FROM SALE

5/3/2018

Possibly a statement is overdue from me regarding the criticisms of Deadly Woman Blues that started cropping up a couple of weeks back. Not until now have I felt equipped to do that though, because I wanted to have some sort of palpable idea or a path to suggest towards making reparation for the misinformation the book has propagated, and apologising for the hurt that this has caused.
            Now a course of action has been decided upon – the book will be withdrawn from sale and pulped, and NewSouth Publishing will post up corrections on its website.
            This post here then is just the start of my own personal processes to amend any online profile of the book that I’m responsible for.
As public access as something like Spotify is, I’ve just removed the Deadly Woman Blues playlist I’d compiled there, and I have similarly deleted a similar playlist on YouTube. I’m working on amending other outlets like not least of all this website itself.
To say that I have myself felt distress over these past few weeks would be churlish in the face of that suffered by those women who have been misrepresented by the book. But I am in a state of distress and since I just don’t think I could string a coherent sentence together for any interviews at the minute, I have prepared this statement to go out to media outlets meantime:

“I have been devastated to learn that my failure to consult with many of the women in my book Deadly Woman Blues has caused such distress and anguish to them and to their friends and families. The book started life in graphic form and grew into one hundred images across one hundred years. The accompanying text about the women’s lives and work contains factual errors and I take responsibility for these. My publisher is working with these women to correct these mistakes on their website – these will be uploaded next week. I will be personally approaching some of these women, whose music has meant so much to me over decades, to apologise over the coming weeks. I should have followed protocols and consulted and checked and am now reflecting on my processes as a writer so at odds with my hitherto good reputation. Given all this, withdrawing the book from sale is the right decision. I apologise unreservedly to the women for any hurt I have caused.”

            NewSouth’s CEO Kathy Bail released a statement the other day announcing the withdrawal of the book, which reads as follows:

“NewSouth published Clinton Walker’s Deadly Woman Blues: Black Women and Australian Music in February 2018 and a small number of books have sold since then. We have been made aware that not all the women who appear in the book were consulted about current biographical details and that some entries contain errors of fact. We are deeply sorry for any hurt or distress this has caused the women concerned and apologise to them unreservedly. We will be publishing a list of corrections on the NewSouth Publishing website when confirmed by those parties involved.”

            The news is out there now in the media and on the net and so as much as I'd thought, in the interests of balance, I could provide links to the some of the criticism, that’s what all the news is anyway, and it’s not hard to find, so just do a search, there’s plenty of it there.
            At some stage soon, as part of the process at hand, when I have come down a bit and calmed down and can reflect a little more clearly, I will post up a detailed account of myself and of the book.

13 Comments

Seriously?

6/3/2018 01:09:36 am

It's astonishing that, as a self-described "historian", you seem to remain totally unaware of the clear socio-historical problems with this project.

You are a white male holder of privilege, and you decided you were the best person to rewrite the life stories of indigenous female musicians? And make a quick buck out of it, no less.

The problem is not just that you wrote offensive content about people without consulting them; the problem is that this book is a continuation of the Stolen Generation, the rewriting of Black Australian history by self-congratulating whitefellas.

The fact that you have not acknowledged your racial/social position in relation to your "subjects" indicates you have very little insight into your actions or the genocide you implicitly support.

Your statement about "these women, whose music has meant so much to me " is telling; it shows the only value you saw in them was the entertainment value of their music, not their humanity. In writing this book you must have also seen entertainment value in their lives - enough at least to be profitable if you independently harvested and sold it to other white Australians. This positions these women as commodities, or property, useful for white Australian consumption and profit, but certainly not for engaging with as equals. Do not fool yourself that this book was written as a tribute.

Sit and think about this comment for a little while before you delete it. It will be unpleasant, but ultimately beneficial.

6/3/2018 08:08:24 pm

Easy tiger. It was a huge time investment from the author. Not an attempt at a quick buck as you put it. And it was a celebration of the music. Not a socio political analysis of stolen generations white privilege or any other issue you want to tag it with. If you think you can write a better book knock yourself out. I’d even buy it.

9/3/2018 04:46:08 pm

Seriously's comment came about as a result of your ignorance Clinton, we all do stupid stuff...if you'd just talked to your subjects and got them on board (or not) it would not exist - partnership, conduit, whatever.

We all HAVE to dig a bit deeper and make the imaginative leap to see why Seriously has no choice but to keep applying the punch to the face in the midst of the lazy thinking surrounding the support you're getting. It's not about silencing, control or taking anything away from you, quite the opposite, it's about evolution out of this problematic area. Ultimately, these are your subjects, you have to listen to and try and understand THEIR reality, it's simply uneven, it's not enough to think 'well, I just don't see colour'. If you want a short sharp contemporary KO to then get up and dust yourself off, maybe check out Reni Edo-Lodge on this💛

Chris West

14/3/2018 01:45:54 am

It is always disappointing to read acrimonious personal comments about a person and the writer not having the guts to put their name to the comment.

Matt

6/3/2018 03:28:32 am

Clinton,
Don't take this too personally.
You wouldn't be the first historian to make errors of fact, and you certainly won't be the last.
Pulping it is an extreme over-reaction. An addendum sheet of corrections would have done the job.
If it has to be pulped, then I think that you should do your best to correct the errors, and have the book reprinted.
Stand up for your artistic creation, that you have worked so hard to produce.
I haven't seen the book, but the reviews seem fine and the illustrations look great.
It seems like a well-intentioned publication.
Some of the subjects didn't like being included? Well, so what.
There's a whole industry these days, of people getting offended by every little thing.
At least you got off your bum and created the book in the first place.

Basil

6/3/2018 01:26:27 pm

You,ve been mau-mau'd, Clinton. Welcome to identity politics.

lisa

6/3/2018 06:56:23 pm

Holy shit! Genocide...come off it.
Midlle ground people.

David

6/3/2018 10:45:04 pm

The comment by “Seriously?” show no understanding of the process of writing or publishing books. Anyone with an awareness of the industry knows that this was a labour of love for Clinton Walker. If he wanted to make money he would have written a tribute to John Farnham or the like. Nobody has done more to acknowledge or promote indigenous music than Walker. And he has done this for almost no financial gain. Without him, there would be much less awareness of indigenous music. I’m just happy I have a copy of what is a great book, even if it has a few errors (and name me music book that doesn’t have plenty of those - the genre has always been more art than science).

7/3/2018 04:38:06 pm

Well I've read Deadly Woman Blues and was in the process of writing a positive review of it when the criticisms began to fly. In scoping my review I wondered what the reaction of its potential audiences would be, given it's a white man writing histories of black women, but ultimately thought that all the hard work and positive reactions to CW's various Buried Country projects would be enough of a track record to prove his overwhelming support of Indigenous musicians. Seems I was wrong. It's upsetting to see someone who has always loved and supported the work of black musicians be pilloried for a labour-of-love that was never going to make him rich, but that celebrated musicians that mostly get little coverage elsewhere and just might have introduced some people to great musicians they'd never encountered before.
Yes, making factual mistakes is very troubling and I'm glad to see you've acknowledged your culpability here Clinton but, frankly, nobody writing about hundreds of musicians would fact-check personally with every single one of them...that's a disingenuous demand. I do recognise though that the nature of some of the errors is personally distressing to the women involved, and I'm sure that upsets you too Clinton. But surely the mistakes could have been addressed with an inserted addendum sheet without pulping an entire run - that seems like a symbolic act to quieten the building outrage.
There are some important things to learn here: always follow the guidelines for ethical research into indigenous studies; and find community advocates to work with who will help you understand how your work could be improved and who can identify potential issues.
I really hope the lesson we're learning isn't just "white guys aren't allowed to write about black artists". While I personally would love to see a black Indigenous woman write a book like Deadly Woman Blues too, surely that could only become more likely with the success of a work like Clinton's? Now no Australian publisher is going to touch the subject...too sensitive, too risky.

Oh Jesus

7/3/2018 04:45:27 pm

LOL. Nobody makes any money from books published by UWA Publishing or virtually any other university press, for that matter. There's just no way Clinton cashed in on this book. It was certainly a labor of love. He made a handful of mistakes that are in no way comparable to genocide. The critics in this mob sound petty and vindictive.

Jaz

30/3/2018 12:21:33 am

Even as a "labor of love" it should have been done correctly and accurately. You know, basic things when dealing with history. Fact-checking for instance. Perhaps also release forms from the subject or estate of the subjects.

I don't understand how the publisher let this get to print stage, even if Mr. Walker turned in non-factual copy, isn't it supposed to be vetted and check by a research team? Isn't that basic due diligence?

Egg on both the author and the publishers face for this farce.

Dig

8/3/2018 01:45:38 am

Whrn the dust settles I do hope sanity prevails and a revised reprinting makes it out there . It’s been forgotten that this book was never purely about aboriginal female musicians, but also ithose of islander/African etc heritage hence the “black woman” Tagline.these woman are no less important than their aboriginal sisters.

Running scared

13/3/2018 07:56:26 pm

Woe betide the music critic (if such a thing still exists, apart from CW) who writes even a good review of an Aboriginal act without first submitting it for their approval? Let alone a less than good review!

DEADLY WOMAN BLUES WITHDRAWN FROM SALE

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