AustLit

'Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi explained that her Country cannot hear English, it can only hear Yanyuwa. We support Dinah’s position – because the English language underpins the Australian colonial project, and has been used to separate, ignore and take from Country, her peoples and their knowledges. Country responds to people, however, for example when there is empathic, creative communication and engagement with landscapes, and when liyan and wirrin is the basis for human and ecological wellbeing. We propose a practice for people new to this participation; of ‘becoming family with place’. It integrates four ways of knowing, to celebrate an ontopoetic for Country that is experiential, creative, propositional and participative – a post-conceptual knowing for human flourishing. It is for coming home to Country, and is for learning and educational purposes.'

Source : Introduction

'In this paper we reflect on land, language and law in Wiilman Noongar Boodjar (Country), which has recently become known as the Upper Blackwood River Catchment in the South West of Western Australia. By intertwining historical perspectives with Western science and Noongar katitjiny (knowledge and understandings, or rationality) we argue that this region is alive, that it does have a language and that there is a message to be heard. History shows that the voice of the land might be diminishing, but signs of a transformation are evident, where a conciliation of these voices enables real listening to ancient insights and deep participation with place.' (Introduction)