Life to the Power of Nothing leaves me with secondary thoughts. It might be that first impressions count, but secondary thoughts last the longest. They are thoughts born from reflection. So they endure and whisper to understanding. A first thought: the essay is rather small. Second thought: the essay is rather large, a bottomless, perplexing mystical reflection on human perception and relatedness. A first thought: The book is thin and light. Second thought: the book is a small window into, or small black box containing, the colours of mystical reflection and human perception.

What does a spider have in common with a dove and jungle vines, cloth, ships and sails? David knows the answer. But he may not tell you. What he will tell you instead is that there are shades of connection in which the absence of one thing necessarily means the presence of another and that the mystical links between presence and absence, like and unalike, in Anindilyakwa society necessitate degrees of reciprocity that create relationships that are indivisible and interdependent. Mystically ordained country, cosmos, art and music necessitates and so defines the other as a foundation for encoded social protocol, obligation, relatedness and, by ultimate implication, concord. Such is the large message of David's seemingly small yet remarkable essay. David's personal experience is part of that revelation and, in the same way that a good correspondent inadvertently becomes part of their own documentary, David has becomes part of his own narrative. David is an interactive and articulating voice in this regard and, perhaps ironically and perhaps inevitably, will becomes part of the very 'Amawurrena' he writes about. ---Scott Cane, Australian anthropologist and author of Pila Nguru: The Spinifex People and First Footprints A book that everyone in Australia should read .

amazing complex revelations. --Valerie Munt, Flinders University of South Australia.