'We want to be the author of our own destinies' says performer and activist Marlene Cummins. In recent weeks, they stepped up their campaign by letting the publisher know their fury at Walker's refusal to meet with them, at his unauthorised use of their likenesses, and at what they claim are factual inaccuracies. Now, the publisher has agreed to withdraw the book from sale, to pulp unsold copies, to never reprint it, and to issue a series of corrections on its website. It has also vowed to examine its own editorial procedures. "It's typical of our history," blues singer and broadcaster Marlene Cummins said of Walker's project and the way he went about it. "We had our land stolen from us, our wages, our children, our art and now our stories. "Every aspect of the oldest living culture in the world has been stolen from us and exploited by people like Clinton Walker. We have to put a stop to this. We have to assert our stories and our histories, we have to reclaim our heritage, we have to determine our destinies."

Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs, of the Stiff Gins. She added that her frustration with the project was perfectly encapsulated in the words of indigenous activist and actor Shareena Clanton on the ABC's Q&A on February 19. "I'm really tired of non-Indigenous peoples making commentaries about Indigenous Australia," Ms Clanton said. "We want to be the voice because we are tired of non-Indigenous Australia thinking they know what is good for us and thinking that they can be the voice for Aboriginal Australia. So, they should all learn to keep their mouths shut and start engaging Aboriginal Australia into the conversation." Deborah Cheetham did not know she was featured in Deadly Woman Blues until the book had been published. Credit:Simon Schluter Cummins, a Kuku Yalanji-Woppaburra woman, said she grew up in various parts of outback Queensland, not in Cherbourg (in the southern part of the state) as Walker wrote. She also disputed other claims: that Eddie Mabo paid for her first saxophone (he gave her a character reference for a payment plan, but no money); that she cared for her ageing father (he died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 59), and that she was recovering from alcoholism in the late-1980s (she stopped drinking in 1983).

Writer and performer Nardi Simpson said Deadly Woman Blues wrongly claimed her group, Stiff Gins, had disbanded, and that she and bandmate Kaleena Briggs were dropped by Sony. Deadly Woman Blues, by Clinton Walker, has been withdrawn following a backlash by its subjects. "We were never signed to Sony; we just paid for recording sessions at their studio," Simpson said. "If we're trying to look for record deals, that could affect us; someone could say, 'That mob were dropped by Sony, why would we want them?'" Artist and filmmaker Franny-Peters Little, daughter of the late Jimmy Little, supplied a front-cover endorsement for the book, calling it "well overdue and incredibly fascinating". But in a recent Facebook post, she clarified her stance, saying she had not realised some subjects had not been involved. "I thought all the chapters were very positive and inspiring [when I read an early draft]," she wrote. "I also thought it was 'about time' that someone wrote about Indigenous women's music ... I assumed that all those mentioned in the book would have been given a draft, like I was, and given an opportunity to make a comment."

Prior to the publisher's backdown, Lou Bennett, founding member of the ARIA Award-winning band Tiddas, had called on the NewSouth to rectify its mistake in publishing such a problematic book. "It is the responsibility of NewSouth books, and not the artists, to find a solution to this problem that has stemmed from Clinton Walker's... research practice and scholarship," she said. Christine Anu's manager Jason Williamson responded on behalf of the singer, saying "a book recognising First Nations women in music is an important contribution to the literary space in Australia", but "it is unfortunate this particular book contains inaccuracies and the talent were not consulted for factual referencing". Soprano Deborah Cheetham, AO, said Walker "only needed to have looked up Wikipedia" to know she was born in New South Wales' Nowra, not on Cummeragunja Mission as he claimed. "[That statement] is particularly distressing," Cheetham said, "as it denies the experience of my mother Monica, who gave birth to me in Nowra District Hospital, only to have me taken from her three weeks later."

"His attitude seems to be that the readers won't have any idea who these people are so the inaccuracies will go unnoticed," she told Fairfax. "The irony of the whole thing is that there's never been a better time to engage with indigenous knowledge, and this writer didn't even go to the source. He's the very personification of the pale, male stale approach. It's an appalling book." Contacted by Fairfax on Tuesday, Walker said he was reeling from the response to his work, which he had intended to be a celebration of a neglected part of Australia's musical history. However, he conceded he got the process of compiling it horribly wrong. "I'm in a real state, but I'm sure it's not half the state I've managed to put other people in," Walker said. "That's why I'm leaping to apologise to a number of women who feel they have been violated and misrepresented by errors of fact that I admit do exist in the book. "I didn't try to obscure what I was doing [in the book, which he began working on in 2010], but I didn't take all the appropriate steps," he added. "I've been involved in underclass music forever, and in some ways this is no different, but in other ways it is very different."

Ideally, he said, the fracas would be a spur for "a young indigenous woman" to write about the topic. Walker added the incident "caused me to engage in a huge amount of soul-searching and I'm nowhere near the end of it". In a statement, the publisher said only "a small number" of copies had been sold since its release on February 5. "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," the statement read. "We are deeply sorry for any hurt or distress this has caused the women concerned and apologise to them unreservedly. NewSouth is reviewing its processes for publishing books with Indigenous content."

UNSW Press chief executive, Kathy Bail, urged the books' subjects to report any mistakes to NewSouth. Loading "We're going to publish corrections on the NewSouth website, and we're aiming to do that next week," Bail said. "We'll continue to look for opportunities to hear from Indigenous women who want to tell their stories."