Laklak Burarrwanga

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.

Telling stories in, through and with country : engaging with Indigenous and more-than-human methodologies at Bawaka, NE Australia

Recent work in ethnographic and qualitative methods highlights the limitations of academic accounts of research interactions that aim for total objectivity and authority. Efforts to move beyond totalizing accounts of both the research experience and the investigator raise questions of how to engage with, make sense of, and (re)present embodied, sensual, visceral, and the ultimately placed qualities of collaborative research interactions. Our response to this set of questions entailed recognizing and respecting the knowledge and agency of the human and nonhuman actors involved in co-producing the research. In this paper, we analyze transcripts, research notes and conversations between non-Indigenous academics, Indigenous researchers, and Bawaka, northern Australia itself to explore storytelling as a collaborative, more-than-human methodology. We argue that in research, storytelling consists of verbal, visual, physical, and sensual elements that inform dynamic and ongoing dialogues between humans (academics/co-researchers/family members), and between humans and nonhumans (animals, water, wind). To move beyond the human/nonhuman binary in our storytelling, we look to Aboriginal Australian concepts of Country in which place is relationally defined and continually co-created by both human and nonhuman agents. Acknowledging and engaging with the embodied, more-than-human nature of research contributes to an enlarged understanding of how knowledge is co-produced, experienced, and storied.

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.

Reframing Development through Collaboration: towards a relational ontology of connection in Bawaka, North East Arnhem Land

Abstract This paper draws on the collaborative experiences of three female academics and three generations of Yolŋu women from an Aboriginal family from Bawaka, North East Arnhem Land to contribute to debates in development around participation, power and justice. Through a reflection on the process of collaboratively co-authoring two books and associated outputs, the paper discusses the way the collaboration is guided by collective priorities that are held as paramount: trust, reciprocity, relationships and sharing goals. The paper draws particular attention to the essential role that families and non-human agents play in shaping these priorities. The relational ontology which underlies this collaboration is inspired by a Yolŋu ontology of connection that requires us to acknowledge ourselves as connected to each other, to other people and to other things. Guided by this Indigenous ontological framework, we reframe the concept of collaboration and of development as inherently and always relational.

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.