A flow that comes when we’re talking: water metaphors for exploring intercultural communication during early childhood assessment interactions in a Yolŋu (First Nations Australian) community

ABSTRACT

Culture mediates how all people think and communicate and intercultural communication skills are required for effective collaboration. This study (2017–2021) explored intercultural communication with 40 participants in one very remote First Nations Australian community in Northern Australia. We explored the perspectives of both Yolŋu (First Nations Australian people from North-East Arnhem Land) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people, in this case Australian) on interactions during early childhood assessments of Yolŋu children (0–6 years). Our intercultural research team used a culturally responsive form of video-reflexive ethnography, a Yolŋu approach to in-depth discussion and collaborative analysis. In this article, we explore nine intercultural communication processes that were recognized and enacted by study participants. Each process is represented by a metaphor drawn from water traveling in North-East Arnhem Land. We share these processes so that others may consider exploring their relevance in other intercultural communication contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural communication
• First Nations Australians
• metaphor
• early childhood assessment
• collaborative research

Acknowledgements

This article is part of Emily Armstrong’s doctoral research project which has been shared at multiple conference workshops and presentations. We thank the participants, researchers, and Yolŋu knowledge holders who contributed to this collaborative work. Yalu Aboriginal Corporation provided a space in Galiwin’ku for researchers to meet and work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 First Nations Australians is used in this article to include diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia who hold unceded sovereignty over their lands and waters.

2 In accordance with family preferences, four interactions were video and audio recorded and one interaction was audio recorded only.

3 Assessment tools used in our sample included: ASQ-TRAK (Ages and Stages Questionnaire – Talking About Raising Aboriginal Kids) (D'Aprano et al., 2016); classroom-based summative assessment for the purposes of twice-yearly reporting aligned with the Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2018); Healthy Under Five Kids (HU5K) schedule (Kruske et al., 2009); and Play and Learn Support (PALS) resource kit (Anglicare, 2012) to support conversations about child development.

4 According to participant preference, discussions were audio-recorded (n = 24), video and audio-recorded (n = 4) or recorded with written notes (n = 1).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Speech Pathology Australia (New Researcher Grant, 2018–2020), Charles Darwin University (College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society – Indigenous Participants Fund), and an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship.