Category: Commentary

Ian RT Colless—Gundungurra Choreographer and Artist

Communicating Indigenous Knowledge and Connection to Country through dance Ian RT Colless, a First Nations Artist and Dancer who lives and works between Sydney and New York, will give a talk at the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute Eco-Arts Seminar on Sunday 24 October, about his duty and deep sense of custodianship as a First  [...]

Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country

Get yourself a copy of this most wondrous book if you would like to gain a deep insight into the songline (songspiral) traditions of First Nations cultures. In 2019, Allen and Unwin published the Gay'Wu Group of Women of North East Arnhem Land's book, Songspirals: Sharing women's wisdom of Country through songlines. It's authors, who [...]

Warrior Scholars

Decolonising Research—Storywork Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology (2019), edited by Jo-ann Archibald, Q’um Q’um Xiiem, Jenny Bol Jun Lee-Morgan, and Jason De Santolo, shows how Indigenous Warrior Scholars are using the epistemology of storywork to profoundly change research strategies used in the Academy, and reveal the potential for a transformation in pedagogies and the [...]

The Third Archive – The Promise of Songlines

The painting featured above, held in my personal collection, is of the Tingari Songline by George Ward Tjungurrayi, a Senior Knowledge man of the Gibson Desert (Barbara Lepani).   Songlines: The Power and Promise How to do justice to this small paperback, Songlines: The Power and Promise, written by Margo Neale Ngawagurrawa, Senior Indigenous Curator [...]

Why Epistemology and Ontology Matter

Epistemology and Culture Epistemology is the study of how we construct our systems of knowledge (ways of knowing) that express our worldview. These rest on our ontology, our ideas about the nature of reality. In a multicultural society, it is important to understand that our different cultures embody different assumptions about ontology and epistemology. I [...]

Embedding the Arts in Community

Community Matters Blue Mountains artist, Wendy Tsai, asks: “How do we garner and nurture the passion in why the arts are so important in cultural life?” The answer to this question lies in the strength of the relationships between the creative arts community of practitioners and the wider community of people who are interested in [...]

Closing the Gap in Ways of Knowing

The Uluru Statement from the Heart In 2017, 250 delegates of Australia's First Nations' people came together at Uluru for the National Constitutional Convention.  As a result of widespread consultation among First Nations' people, they issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a way forward for Australia and its peoples to heal the deep [...]

AI & The Struggle for Humane Technology

Center for Humane Technology We envision a world where technology is realigned with humanity’s best interests. Our work expands beyond tech addiction to the broader societal threats that the attention economy poses to our well-being, relationships, democracy, and shared information environment. We must address these threats to conquer our biggest global challenges like pandemics, inequality, [...]

James Bradley’s “Ghost Species”, 2020

James Bradley Trained as a lawyer  before becoming a writer, Bradley lives in Sydney with his partner, the novelist Mardi McConnochie. Bradley's novels, which have been published internationally, explore both past and future. His books include seven novels and a book of poetry. He has also edited two anthologies, Blur, a collection of writing by young Australian [...]

Jem Bendell—Dire Warnings on the Climate Crisis

Writing in his Deep Adaptation blog, Jim Bendell draws our attention to recent warning from leading climate scientists TIPPING POINTS In November 2019 seven leading climate scientists, including Professor Timothy Lenton of the University of Exeter and Professor Katherine Richardson of the University of Copenhagen published a review in the journal Nature which said:  “If damaging tipping [...]