Abstract
“Jungku Ngambala Ngarrur Ngarrumba Yarkijina Yurrngumba”
‘We sit peacefully in our lands forever’
Garrwa Elder Nancy McDinny
Elder Nancy McDinny evoked this Garrwa proverb in the lead-up to the October 2014 protests against fracking and the proposed zinc mine at McArthur in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Borroloola. As a direct challenge to mining extraction, the proverb asserts a profound guardianship role, laid down by creation heroes and enacted by our ancestor’s intent on maintaining healthy conditions and peaceful lives in Garrwa country. Garrwa territory lies in the South West Gulf of the Northern Territory, a region with ancient interwoven storytelling traditions. The Garrwa world resonates with stories and songs for sustaining life and our relational ways of being. These protests occurred in the first year of my PHD study. This study looks towards understanding the renewal of ancient song traditions through Indigenous video. The study reveals how our ancient song traditions contain dynamic world-making doctrines and cultural powers that are sourced from creation journeys, yet extend across social, cultural and political spheres. It is here that we reveal the synergies between ancient guardianship roles and the alliances that are emerging within movements in support of Indigenous self-determination and sustainability. This chapter focuses on understanding Yarnbar Jarngkurr, ‘talk story’, as an emergent creative Indigenous methodology & shielding strategy within the family protests of October 2014. Yarnbar Jarngkurr is an expression of the family way of being, of Garrwa self determination and an emergent decolonizing framework for meaningful research collaboration. This paper explores two foundational alignments within this framework: relational being and enactment of intent. Carefully framed Indigenous research collaborations hold transformative potential to revitalize our languages and contribute to sustainable movements in contemporary life. A conscious transdisciplinary shift would forge deeper understandings of relational being as a collective positioning and continue manifesting interconnectedness through new communicative models of autonomous sustainability and healthy living.
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Notes
- 1.
I am currently undertaking a UTS Doctorate of Creative Arts titled ‘Towards understanding the renewal of ancient song traditions through participatory video practice’. Please note that Garrwa is not a written language and that spelling has been guided by Elders who are fluent speakers and have some linguistic experience. However, I recognise there may be different spellings for words and phrases and that there may be shifts in the spelling at part of the revitalisation of the language.
- 2.
This was driven by a number of different interests and companies like Armour Energy. For more context, please refer to http://dontfracktheterritory.org/community/borrol/
- 3.
Ngabaya generally refers to human-like spirit being or spirit people, they are also ancestral beings and a dreaming Bradley, J. 2010, Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the Songlines of Carpentaria, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, Australia.
- 4.
A number of Garrwa youth have take cultural leadership roles in Seed Mob. For more on Seed Mob http://www.seedmob.org.au/our_story
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De Santolo (Garrwa & Barunggam), J. (2018). Shielding Indigenous Worlds from Extraction and the Transformative Potential of Decolonizing Collaborative Research. In: Fam, D., Neuhauser, L., Gibbs, P. (eds) Transdisciplinary Theory, Practice and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93743-4_14
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