Banbapuy Ganambarr

Co-becoming Bawaka Towards a relational understanding of place/space

We invite readers to dig for ganguri (yams) at and with Bawaka, an Indigenous Homeland in northern Australia, and, in doing so, consider an Indigenous-led understanding of relational space/place. We draw on the concept of gurrutu to illustrate the limits of western ontologies, open up possibilities for other ways of thinking and theorizing, and give detail and depth to the notion of space/place as emergent co-becoming. With Bawaka as lead author, we look to Country for what it can teach us about how all views of space are situated, and for the insights it offers about co-becoming in a relational world.

Working with and learning from Country: decentring human author-ity

In this paper, we invite you night fishing for wäkun at Bawaka, an Indigenous homeland in North East Arnhem Land, Australia. As we hunt wäkun, we discuss our work as an Indigenous and non-Indigenous, human and more-than-human research collective trying to attend deeply to the messages we send and receive from, with and as a part of Country. The wäkun, and all the animals, plants, winds, processes, things, dreams and people that emerge together in nourishing, co-constitutive ways to create Bawaka Country, are the author-ity of our research. Our reflection is both methodological and ontological as we aim to attend deeply to Country and deliberate on what a Yolŋu ontology of co-becoming, that sees everything as knowledgeable, vital and interconnected, might mean for the way academics do research. We discuss a methodology of attending underpinned by a relational ethics of care. Here, care stems from an awareness of our essential co-constitution as we care for, and are cared for by, the myriad human and more-than-human becomings that emerge together to create Bawaka. We propose that practising relational research requires researchers to open themselves up to the reality of their connections with the world, and consider what it means to live as part of the world, rather than distinct from it. We end with a call to go beyond ‘human’ geography to embrace a more-than-human geography, a geography of co-becoming.

The politics of ontology and ontological politics

There is a politics to what ontologies are recognized as existing; what pasts, presents and futures are made real; what configurations of place, time and being are validated; and what ethics underpin the reality of our connections with and as the world. And there is a powerful violence associated with their dismissal. In responding to Simon and Randalls’ discussion of the ontological politics of resilience, we consider ontological politics in an Indigenous context. We do this as an Indigenous–non-Indigenous, human–more-than-human collective, from, and as, Bawaka, an Indigenous Australian homeland in northern Australia. We offer an ontography of Bawaka and, in so doing, attend to the layers of lirrwi (charcoal) in the sand to recognize what lirrwi can tell us about being, and politics, in a Country that has always co-become with Yolŋu people.

Meaningful tourist transformations with Country at Bawaka, North East Arnhem Land, northern Australia

In this article, we discuss how human and more-than-human agencies, experienced and interpreted through emotions and sensory experiences, actively shape and enable transformative learning for tourists. We examine the narratives of two visitors to Bawaka Cultural Enterprises, an Indigenous-run tourism venture in North East Arnhem Land, northern Australia. We attend particularly to the more-than-human place of Bawaka and the ways the visitors are drawn into what is known as Bawaka Country. Indeed, transformation occurs as the visitors co-become with Country, become part of its ongoing co-constitution. We also examine the limits to transformations forged through such immersive tourism experiences. Ultimately, we suggest that for these visitors, more-than-human agencies create transformative learning experiences which build emotional and affective connections with people, places and causes. We argue that even though these connections may become diluted over time and distance, embodied and remembered experiences remain meaningful, having the potential to unsettle, connect and transform.