{{Short description|Australian author and Yugambeh elder (1940–2007)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Use Australian English|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Ysola Best | image = Ysola Best - Aborginal author and researcher.jpg | birth_name = Ysola Mary Best | birth_date = {{Birth date|1940|11|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|5|19|1940|11|15|df=y}} | occupation = 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.
== 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ysola Best 1940-2007. - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Ysola+Best+1940-2007.-a0175181534 |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}</ref><ref name="Austlit">{{Cite web |last=Austlit |title=Ysola Best {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A73473 |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Garcia |first=Jocelyn |date=2020-01-25 |title=How two Queensland women brought an Indigenous language back from the 'dead' |url=https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/how-two-queensland-women-brought-an-indigenous-language-back-from-the-dead-20200122-p53tme.html |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=Brisbane Times |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hill |first=Marji |date=2007-09-22 |title=Ysola Best 1940-2007 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=07294352&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA175181534&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Australian Aboriginal Studies |language=English |volume=2007 |issue=2 |pages=200–202}}</ref>
== 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-06-07 |title=Beaudesert elder receives Queensland Great Award |url=https://www.beaudeserttimes.com.au/story/6205394/beaudesert-elder-receives-queensland-great-award/ |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=Beaudesert Times |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barlow |first=Alex |title=Kombumerri - Saltwater people |date=1997 |publisher=Heinemann Library Australia |others=Ysola Best |isbn=1-86391-037-9 |location=Port Melbourne |oclc=52249982}}</ref><ref name="Austlit"/>
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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQHhAAAAMAAJ |title=National Library of Australia News |date=1994 |publisher=The Library |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Best |first=Ysola |date=February 1995 |title=Aboriginal and early settler relations on the Logan and Albert Rivers: an Aboriginal view. -Paper presented to . Conference (: Beaudesert, Qld )- |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.950706380 |journal=Royal Historical Society of Queensland |volume=15 |issue=10 |pages=457–467}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Best |first=Ysola |title=Yugambeh talga : music traditions of the Yugambeh people |date=2005 |publisher=Keeaira Press |others=Candace Kruger, Patricia O'Connor |isbn=0-9581169-1-1 |location=Southport, Qld. |oclc=62575169}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Singing Indigenous Language Alive - Candace Kruger - APATA Podcast |url=https://www.apata.com.au/podcasts-details/yarrabil-girrebbah-singing-indigenous-language-alive/ |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=APATA - The Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association |language=en-AU}}</ref>
Best worked at the State Library of Queensland and was on the State Library of Queensland Aboriginal Advisory Committee from 1993 to 2000.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcGq7TqT19sC&dq=ysola+Best&pg=PA502 |title=With Love & Fury: Selected Letters of Judith Wright |date=2006 |publisher=National Library Australia |isbn=978-0-642-27625-4 |pages=502 |language=en}}</ref>
== 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZYRAQAAMAAJ |title=Australian Aboriginal Studies: Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies |date=2007 |publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies |pages=200 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=THE ABORIGINAL PAST - Ysola Best |url=https://biodiversity.com.au/stories-2/stories-page-2/ |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=biodiversity.com.au}}</ref>
She died of cancer on 19 May 2007 at the age of 66.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ysola Best 1940-2007, Marji Hill - Biography |url=https://aiatsis.library.link/portal/Ysola-Best-1940-2007-Marji-Hill/NQBGlsuM34s/ |website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)}}</ref>
In 2011, the Kungala building at the Yugambeh Museum was dedicated to her posthumously. Some of her works are also held at the museum.<ref>''Beaudesert'' ''Times. September 2007- June 2017.'' https://beaudesertmuseum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Beaudesert-Times-Index.pdf</ref><ref>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</ref>
== Works ==
* Best, Ysola. (1994). ''AN UNEASY COEXISTENCE: AN ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE OF “CONTACT HISTORY” IN SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND''.<ref>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|doi-access=free}}</ref> * 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Austlit |title=Jebbribillum Bora Ring : Our Learning Place {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C706359 |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en}}</ref> * 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cleary |first1=Tania |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UlLAAAAYAAJ&q=ysola+Best |title=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 ... |last2=Wales |first2=Historic Houses Trust of New South |date=1993 |publisher=Historic Houses Trust of NSW |isbn=978-0-7310-0261-0 |language=en}}</ref> * 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}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Best |first=Ysola |title=Borobi and his friends |date=1998 |publisher=Yugambeh Museum Language & Heritage Research Centre, Kombumerri Aboriginal Corp. for Culture |others=Gillian Aird, Yugambeh Museum Language & Heritage Research Centre, Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Initiative Program |isbn=0-9585570-0-4 |location=Beenleigh, Qld. |oclc=39922110}}</ref> * ''Remnants of Gondwana : a natural and social history of the Gondwana rainforests of Australia''. (2010). {{ISBN|978-0-9803113-5-8}}. (Posthumously)<ref>{{Citation |last1=McIntyre-Tamwoy |first1=Susan |title=The Aboriginal values of rainforest |date=2010 |url=https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/11937/ |pages=235–246 |editor-last=Kitching |editor-first=Roger |place=Baulkham Hills, Australia |publisher=Surrey Beatty & Sons |isbn=978-0-9803113-5-8 |access-date=2022-09-30 |last2=Best |first2=Ysola |last3=Fahey |first3=Barbara |editor2-last=Braithwaite |editor2-first=Richard |editor3-last=Cavanagh |editor3-first=Janet}}</ref>
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Ysola}} Category:1940 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Australian Aboriginal elders Category:Indigenous Australian writers Category:James Cook University alumni Category:People from Beaudesert, Queensland Category:People from the Gold Coast, Queensland Category:University of Adelaide alumni Category:Yugambeh people