Indigenous Knowledge: Australian Perspectives

How are we to live well with others? How can we sustain abundant environments and nourishing cultures? How might connections to place and generations past strengthen our cultural, political and economic futures Indigenous knowledge traditions have been fundamental to human life in Australia for countless generations. They carry understandings of ancestral histories, and exemplify beneficial behaviours for living well on country, managing environmental resources and maintaining social cohesion.

Australia has developed collaborative approaches to Indigenous Knowledge research that are unique in the global context. These approaches centre the wisdom of Indigenous knowledge-holders across interdisciplinary fields of enquiry as diverse as medicine, health and wellbeing, social and economic development, environmental management, agriculture and horticulture, history, law and the creative arts. Indigenous Knowledge: Australian Perspectives reveals how Indigenous ways of being and knowing are intricately tied to place, expressed through beauty, and resound with wisdom. It argues that the world's contemporary challenges…

Professor Marcia Langton AO is a granddaughter of Yiman and Bidjara people in Queensland where she was born and raised. She is qualified as an anthropologist and geographer, and since 2000 has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and since 2017, has held the role of Associate Provost.

Professor Aaron Corn is inaugural director of the Indigenous Knowledge Institute and Coordinator of the Doctor of Philosophy - Indigenous Knowledge degree course at the University of Melbourne. His research collaborations with Indigenous colleagues and communities began in the early 1990s and have fostered meaningful research and teaching partnerships that have promoted greater recognition for Indigenous knowledge holders within universities and beyond. His bestselling book Law: The Way of the Ancestors, co-authored with Marcia Langton, was published in 2023. He co-hosts the podcast The Deep End with Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn.

Samuel Curkpatrick is a researcher specialising in Australian Indigenous music and philosophical issues of language, epistemology and religion. He has collaborated on music performance and teaching with Yolŋu and Warlpiri ceremonial leaders, exploring creativity and understanding across diverse knowledge traditions. Curkpatrick is a research associate at the Indigenous Knowledge Institute and the Indigenous Studies Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. He completed doctoral studies in ethnomusicology at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, ANU, and postdoctoral research in theology and philosophy at the University of Divinity.

Edited by Marcia Langton, Aaron Corn, Samuel Curkpatrick
Published November 2024
Paperback
224 pages

ISBN 9780522880755