Notes on Knowledge in Country: Indigenous Knowledges, Relationality, and Resistance

Acknowledgement and Context

• Speaker: Zach, a historian specializing in Indigenous history; identifies as Indigenous (Wabunda man from Yulin country, South Coast) with obligations across East Coast communities.
• Acknowledgement of country:
  • On Dharug lands, with Dharawal nation recognition where he lives.
  • Extends recognition to viewers’ locations and communities.
  • Note that slides/images include Aboriginal people who have passed on.
• Purpose and stance:
  • Challenge permanent exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges from Australian history.
  • Sovereignty is not ceded; Aboriginal land is, was, and always will be Aboriginal land.
  • Topic: knowledge in country; knowledge as part of ongoing activism to care for country and resist settler colonialism, denial of sovereignty, and genocide.
• Important framing: knowledge in Indigenous contexts is political and not apolitical.

Part 1 — Knowledges: What knowledge is, and how it works

• General definition of knowledge:
  • Knowledge as awareness, familiarity, or understanding.
  • Knowledge can be acquired from many sources, actively or passively.
  • Classical philosophical definition: knowledge as a justified true belief.
• Formal definition: $K ext{ is a } ext{Justified True Belief (JTB)}.$
  • For a proposition to count as knowledge, one must both believe it and have justification for that belief, not merely claim it as true.
• Non-universality and relativity of knowledge:
  • What counts as knowledge, and how it is justified, varies by society, position, education, family background.
  • One’s worldview may yield a true belief that others do not share or justify in the same way.
  • Knowledge changes over time with social change, technology, leadership, and new information.
• Example illustrating changing knowledge:
  • A modern item (e.g., underwear) is recognized as such due to lifelong cultural context; King Henry VIII, living in a different historical context, would likely misidentify it without his cultural framework.
• Epistemology and ontology (definitions and relation):
  • Epistemology: theories of knowledge — what counts as knowledge, how claims are justified, what counts as knowledge.
  • Ontology: the state of being or reality — the social, cultural, political, and material contexts that shape knowledge.
  • Relationship: ontology informs epistemology; our social world shapes what we consider true/real and how we come to know it.
• Western vs Indigenous knowledges:
  • Western knowledges have often been privileged in settler colonial contexts due to power dynamics.
  • Historical justification for invasive study of Indigenous peoples (anthropology, archaeology, etc.) used to claim Indigenous inferiority; contemporary distrust around “research” in Indigenous communities.
  • Irene Watson and Aileen Walton Robinson critique: how do Western researchers know more? why prioritize Western knowing? why validate Indigenous knowledges through Western frameworks?
  • Key point: all knowledges are valid within their own epistemic frameworks; power imbalances shape what counts as rigorous knowledge.
• Important caveats and ethical implications:
  • Research as a historically problematic practice in Indigenous contexts; need for equitable partnerships and co-creation of knowledge.
  • Indigenous knowledges are embedded, embodied, and situated in Country and kinship networks; extracting them without consent or benefit is ethically problematic.

Indigenous knowledges: What they are and how they work

• No single definition of Indigenous knowledges due to vast diversity:
  • ~7.0 billion Indigenous peoples? (worldwide) and ~5,000 groups across ~90 countries (as noted).
  • Values, priorities, and methods differ across groups.
• Core characteristics of Indigenous knowledges:
  • Understandings and skills embedded in long histories of interaction with land, sea, and natural surroundings.
  • Decision making, relationships, and daily life informed by these knowledges.
  • Interconnected, dynamic, adaptive, and transmitted across generations.
  • Knowledge gives meaning to spaces, objects, sacred sites; it identifies histories and secrets; linked to dreaming and ancestors.
  • Embodied and carried within people; mind–body–world are deeply interconnected.
• Critique of Cartesian separation (Descartes):
  • Mind-body separation marginalizes Indigenous ways where knowledge is inseparable from body, land, and lived experience.
  • Indigenous knowledges emphasize embodied cognition and the inseparability of knowledge from place.
• Land as source of knowledge and law:
  • Land/country is the primary source of life, law, knowledge, language, history.
  • Country informs how knowledge is produced and understood; country is part of ontology and epistemology.
• Interconnection with country varies by nation; example: Yolngu (Ireland) vs Yuin (South Coast) knowledges differ due to different country and environments.
• Role of songlines:
  • Songlines are knowledge and memory systems tying people to country.
  • Embodied, physical and spiritual pathways; knowledge is both in the land and carried through songs.
  • Cross-border songlines share knowledge; segments belong to the nation where the line passes; singing and walking along songlines sustains country and knowledge.
• The relationship between country and future generations:
  • The future is imagined by looking at past and present to shape tomorrow.
  • Embodied knowledge of origin strengthens identity; knowledge and body are in motion and adapt over time.

What is country? Landscape, sea, and sky

• Visual and conceptual map: IASIS map (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies) showing language groups; boundaries reflect colonial record; not perfect.
• Definitions of country components:
  • Land: soil, rocks, flora; not only physical but also homes for animals and ecosystems.
  • Waterways: sea country, rivers, lakes; interlinked with land.
  • Sky: sky country; no separation between land, sea, and sky in Indigenous understanding.
• Ontology of country versus Western ownership:
  • Indigenous view: country belongs to people; people belong to country; country does not belong to people; reciprocal care is central.
  • Western view: possession/ownership through purchase, property lines, and exchange value; land is owned by individuals or families.
• Consequences of colonisation:
  • Disruption of connection to country disrupts identity, social life, language, spirituality, and knowledge systems.
  • This disconnection can undermine mental, physical, and emotional well-being due to broken lines of knowledge and belonging.
• Quotations and theorists:
  • Eileen Morton Robinson: connection to country is ontological; country constitutes us and shapes reality; radical difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous beings.
  • Ian Finer (1977): Land Rights Act proclamation emphasizes connection with country as life and source of spirit; indivisible from land.
  • Bromma Carson (Politics of Identity): Indigenous identification with landscapes signals constitutive knowledge systems.
• Sovereignty and ongoing impact:
  • Indigenous sovereignty not ceded; colonisation sought to erase connection to country and governance.
  • Colonisation disrupts a 120,000-year continuum of relationship between people and country; the disruption affects knowledge systems themselves.

Relationality and the centrality of country

• Relationality: everything is connected; all beings (living and nonliving) have relationships and purposes.
  • Humans are not the center; knowledge systems are country-centered and relational.
  • Caring for country means maintaining and nurturing relationships among people, plants, animals, waters, and places.
• How relationality is learned:
  • Through stories, listening to elders, sitting in country, and allowing country to teach you.
• Country as a system of knowledge and law beyond human-centric perspectives:
  • Knowledge is held by country and informs relationships and ecosystems.
  • Humans have responsibilities to land, waters, and kin; reciprocal sustenance and stewardship.
• Practical responsibilities under relationality:
  • Spiritual connections to lands and waters; protection of sacred sites and stories along songlines.
  • Cultural management of sites and stories; participation in practices like cultural burning; control of access to sacred areas.
• Example: the Black Duck songline (Umbarra) along ~300 km of the South Coast from below the Victorian border to the Hawkesbury River:
  • Umbarra is the totem of Merriman, a Yuin man; a protector figure for the Yuin people.
  • Songline traverses multiple coastal sites with rock engravings and sacred locations; each site relays parts of the story.
  • Walking the line and singing are acts of preserving and renewing culture and knowledge.
• Reawakening and losses:
  • The Black Duck songline was dormant for a long period; last full walk of the line by Uncle Ted Thomas in 1988 (bicentenary).
  • Reawakening requires gathering songs, connecting them in order, and linking with key locations to sing up country again.
  • During colonial rule, restrictions on language and ceremony led to loss of songs and knowledge.

Cultural responsibilities and protecting country

• Cultural burning as a management tool:
  • Low, cool burns designed to rejuvenate landscapes, reduce invasive plants, and prevent large wildfires later.
  • Burns should not damage canopies; mosaic pattern across the landscape supports biodiversity.
• Protecting sacred sites and knowledge:
  • Some areas are temporarily or permanently closed to the public to protect sacred knowledge and heritage.
  • Access controls are necessary when non-Indigenous or extractive activities would threaten sites.
• Conflicts with settler interests and legal frameworks:
  • Juukan Gorge (Pilbara, WA) destruction under Section 18 of Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972 framework) allowed mine destruction with ministerial consent.
  • Juukan Gorge was the only inland site with continuous human occupation for over $46{,}000$ years; its destruction highlights conflicts between heritage and mining profits.
  • Six months after Juukan Gorge, Rio Tinto began discussions on a copper mine on sacred land elsewhere, showing ongoing tensions between heritage and corporate interests.
• Value systems and consequences:
  • When governments prioritize economic gain (e.g., a ${135{,}000{,}000}$ profit from a mine) over Indigenous heritage, Indigenous perspectives and lands bear the costs.
  • Socioeconomic priorities often overlook the ongoing connection between people and country.
• Ongoing resistance and its forms:
  • Resistance ranges from protests to language reclamation, ceremony, and refusal to be erased.
  • Pemoway’s resistance in Parramatta (1700s): burned crops, stole cattle, and returned to country rather than abandoning it.
  • Indigenous resistance is ongoing and future-oriented, countering narratives of Indigenous decline.
• Sovereignty and political engagement:
  • Resistance is framed as political acts; protecting and caring for country is a political act because it challenges settler state structures.
  • To engage with caring for country is to engage with political actions and policy debates.
• The Lakota quote and forward-looking stance:
  • Nagisti (Lakota Man) quotes: subjugation destroys land, language, identity, and future possibilities; Indigenous futures are proactively navigated through resistance and knowledge.
• Final synthesis on resistance and future obligations:
  • The past fuels present action; ancestors’ knowledge and actions guide current and future advocacy.
  • The speaker emphasizes that the fight for sovereignty, land rights, and cultural survival is ongoing and shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies alike.

Final reflections and closing ideas

• The past remains active in the present; Indigenous knowledge, language, and land rights continue to shape current identities and actions.
• The lecturer invites ongoing engagement, questions, and collaboration to advance understanding and justice.
• Email and safe journey sign-off signal openness to dialogue and continued learning.

Key terms and concepts to remember

• Knowledge = $K ext{ (Justified True Belief)}$ with caveats about context and justification.
• Epistemology: theory of knowledge; what counts as knowledge and how it is justified.
• Ontology: ontological reality; the state of being and the context that shapes knowledge.
• Indigenous knowledges: diverse, embodied, land- and country-centered systems of meaning, decision-making, and law.
• Country: land, sea, and sky; a relational, non-possessive conception of place that structures identity, knowledge, and sovereignty.
• Songlines: embodied knowledge pathways across country; integrate land, law, and culture; require active renewal to preserve knowledge.
• Relationality: all things are connected; knowledge is maintained through relationships and reciprocal care.
• Cultural burning: low-intensity fires used to maintain health of landscapes and reduce catastrophic fires.
• Juukan Gorge: example of heritage destruction for economic gain; highlights legal and moral conflicts with Indigenous rights.
• Resistance as political act: caring for country and Indigenous sovereignty are inherently political statements and actions.
• Sovereignty: never ceded; ongoing assertion of rights to land, culture, and self-determination.