Acknowledging ‘Country’ Listening to and Speaking your Place

NEW ONLINE COURSE!

PREVIEW & INTRODUCTION

Friday 27 August at 7.00 – 9.00pm

(Followed by 3 fortnightly sessions on Thursday evenings, 7.00pm)

Facilitated by Dr Maya Ward - Phd. in Creative Writing; Masters in Applied Science (Social Ecology); Author: The Comfort of Water: A River Pilgrimage 2011 detailed her walk from the sea to the source of the Yarra, while following the length of an ancient Wurundjeri Songline. (shortlisted by the Victoria State Library for the 2021 Year of Reading.) 

 “We cry for you because you haven’t got meaning of in this country.  We have a gift we want to give you. And it’s the gift of pattern thinking.  It’s the culture which is the blood of this country, of Aboriginal groups, of the ecology, of the land itself.” 

David Mowaljarlai, Ngarinyin elder

This course will take place over (four) fortnightly Zoom sessions, with readings and guided exercises to explore in the time between sessions.

Friday 27 August: Introduction and Overview of ‘Acknowledging Country’. Country is an Aboriginal English word meaning both the visible and invisible word around us; people, plants, animal, landforms, weather systems, the animate spirit that infuses us all, the stories and the web of relationships between us. To acknowledge Country, then, is to acknowledge an alive, sensing world. The implications of this are enormous, with the potential to disrupt the de-animated worldview that underpins the colonial paradigm. - How might we fruitfully and respectfully engage with this other way of knowing, and learn the responsibilities and connections of deep belonging?