Strengthening Aboriginal knowledge and practices
Environmental Justice and D’harawal Knowledge Connections to Flora within the southern Cumberland Plain
2023 Cumberland Plain Research Funding Grant Recipient
Lead Investigator: Professor Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews (WSU)
Co-Investigators: Dr Shannon Foster (Bangawarra Inc) and Jane Stanham (Camden Park House)
Project Summary: It is the purpose of this project to work with the D’harawal Traditional Descendants and Knowledge Holders Circle, Bangawarra Inc (led by registered Traditional Owner Shannon Foster), and John Macarthur descendant Jane Stanham from Camden Park House, to identify and showcase deep connections between Traditional D’harawal Knowledges (e.g., Story and language), colonial botanic archives (held within Camden Park House), and key flora (and fauna) within the southern regions of the Cumberland Plains Conservation Plan.
This project will utilise a synergy of research methodologies and methods including Indigenous Yarning (Bessarab & Ngan’du, 2010), Photoyarning (Rogers, 2019), Indigenous archival research (Thorpe, 2019) D’harawal Storytelling (Bodkin-Andrews, et al., 2022), and Experimental Exhibition Methods (Bøe, Hollund, Lillehammer, Ruud, Sandvik, 2019). From this foundation, the research will document the interactions between sharing Indigenous Knowledges and community values towards local flora within the southern Cumberland Plains region.
Project outcomes will potentially include research articles and briefer social media pieces on the need to protect and teach of D’harawal Knowledges for sustainable environment protection and justice, and an interdisciplinary/inter-methodology exhibition piece to showcase the Camden Park House/Macarthur collection of native woods (dated back to the 1850s), photographs of native flora in their current environment, and D’harawal Knowledges (language/medicinal uses/Stories). Value-based responses to this exhibition will also be collected to further ascertain community values emerging from the project.
Ultimately this project will contribute to the CPCP by helping ensure that growth within the Cumberland Plains will respect Aboriginal connections to, and Knowledges of, Country.
Recording traditional D’harawal songs written and composed by Songman Matt Doyle at Electric Avenue Studios, Ultimo.
L-R Josh Sly (Gathang/Wiradjuri); Yaaran Doyle (Muruwari/Yuwalaraay/Gunai/Monaro); Matt Doyle (Muruwari/Yuwalaraay/Gunai/Monaro); Brock Tutt (at back) (Yuin); Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews (D’harawal) and producer Kate Richards. (Image: Kate Richards)
