Feeling and Hearing Country as Research Method

Abstract

This paper explains Feeling and Hearing Country as an Australian Indigenous practice whereby water is life, Country is responsive, and Elders generate wisdom for a communicative order of things. The authors ask, as a society of Indigenous people and those no longer Indigenous to place, can we walk together in the task of collectively healing Country? The research method uses experiential, creative, propositional, and practical ways of knowing and being in and with local places. Evidence may take many forms based upon engagement with an animate, sentient world. The research method can generate new meanings, implications and insights, and regenerate practical knowledge of Country. As an Indigenous tradition, Feeling and Hearing Country can enable the regeneration of healing life energies. It can help freshen up stories, knowledges, and help link ancestral wisdom to the present while co-creating healthy futures. Feeling and Hearing Country can enliven the human spirit, landscapes, and all beings via a participative, creative process that is helpful for the planet at this climate time, when many humans have forgotten their place in the world. As a research method, Feeling and Hearing Country can support the unlearning of epistemological errors for reinstating vitality in things.

Keywords:

• Feeling and hearing country
• cultural landscapes
• indigenous research method
• feeling and hearing country as research method
• kincentric ecologies
• indigenous local knowledges
• co-operative inquiry
• post-qualitative research

Geolocation information

This research was conducted in the Kimberley region of the north of Western Australia. The cultural Landscape and valleys of the lowest part of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, from Noonkanbah, through Jarlmadangah (Mt Anderson), Balginjirr, Pandanus Park (Yurmulun) and Derby to the river mouth and into King George Sound, form the Country where the Nyikina peoples have lived since the dawn of time. To the West and to the ocean, are the Lands of the Karajarri, who are neighbours. Nyikina and Karajarri care for many shared stories, each told within the contours and knowledges of their own Country, languages, cultural perspectives, and particular locations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data used in this paper is within the paper.

Notes

1 This paper forms the first phase of a research project entitled: Intergenerational Cultural Transfer of Indigenous Knowledges.

2 In this paper capitalization of Country, Elders, River and Land accords respect, recognizing broader meanings than normal English language uses. For example, Country includes social, spiritual, and relational systems.

3 Woodside withdrew from the proposal due to changed economic circumstances.

4 For consistency in this paper, we use ‘Indigenous’, but Aboriginal is used where a quote requires this.

5 Feeling and Hearing Country has commonalities with the Indigenous Australian concept of Dreaming Country. Dreaming is expansive and inclusive in the sense of forever presence, overarching stories and explanations, ontological meanings, intra-relationality, and place-energies in sentient Country, whereas Feeling and Hearing Country are skills and communicative abilities within the same participative reality. For further information on Feeling and Hearing Country, see Poelina, A., Wooltorton, S., Harben, S., Collard, L., Horwitz, P., & Palmer, D. (2020). Feeling and hearing Country. PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature(15), 6-15. http://panjournal.net/issues/15

6 The concept of liyan is spoken in many Kimberley languages and understood by a good number of English speakers.

7 We use the term ‘Mother Earth’ as this term is widely recognized within Indigenous communities in Australia and elsewhere, giving recognition to the fertility and life of places. This is not a romantic idea; rather, it acknowledges Country’s agency, nurturing, sentience, and provision; in return requiring attentive response in multiple forms. For example, see Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass : indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants (First edition. ed.). Milkweed Editions.

8 Cultural warning. Perdrisat has authority from the family of Micklo Corpus since deceased, to continue to show this film. See https://vimeo.com/451696034.

9 ‘Everyone’ is inclusive of the more-than-human, whom sensitive observers may notice can play an unseen or unpredictable role in planning and practice.

10 This is available as a video, here: https://vimeo.com/751080212/2b0e730bee.

11 This is available as a video, here: https://vimeo.com/638357785/be0fd7a5b5

12 Naloo is a hitting or digging stick.

13 Contemporary spelling is Geegully.

14 Contemporary spelling is Karajarri.

15 Guramdidi is a special ceremony.

16 We recommend the film Putuparri and the Rainmakers (Lawford & Ma, 2015) for a visible, actual demonstration of how ceremony can produce weather.

17 See https://vimeo.com/451420394 and https://vimeo.com/459588320

Additional information

Funding

This research is part of a consortium of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Edith Cowan University, Millennium Kids, Pandanus Park Community, the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, Madjulla Inc, the Western Australian Museum and the Water Corporation of Western Australia. It is financially supported (partially) by the following organisations: the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme [project LP210301390]; the Water Corporation’s Research and Development Program; Millennium Kids Enviro Fund; and the WA Museum.