Ysola Best
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15 November 1940
Ysola Best | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ysola Mary Best 15 November 1940 Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia |
| Died | 19 May 2007 (aged 66) |
| Occupations | Aboriginal elder and author |
| Known for | Researching 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.
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][2]
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.[7][8]
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.[9][10]
Best worked at the State Library of Queensland and was on the State Library of Queensland Aboriginal Advisory Committee from 1993 to 2000.[11]
