It’s a basic tenet of indigenous culture, that Country informs culture – not the other way around.

That’s where European culture and indigenous culture is at loggerheads. The European culture attempts to dominate, to fashion Country in its own image, but it’s a losing battle, that won’t end well if we keep going as we are.  Trying to massage the land into something that it is not, is a losing battle.

 ‘I am Country, and Country is me!’ Indigenous ways of teaching could be beneficial for all children, Benjamin Wilson, Associate Professor, University of Canberra; David Spillman, Assistant Professor – Teacher Education, University of Canberra. The Conversation, August 4, 2022. 
https://theconversation.com/i-am-country-and-country-is-me-indigenous-ways-of-teaching-could-be-beneficial-for-all-children-187424

Country as Teacher.
Centre for Sustainable Communities, University of Canberra. 
https://www.canberra.edu.au/uc-research/faculty-research-centres/csc/transformational-pedagogies/country-as-teacher

A primary focus of this program of research is to develop alternative educational practices which honour Indigenous and non-Eurocentric ways of being, knowing and doing. Integral to alternative educational practices is engaging place-based methodologies which enact learning with, and from, Country. Our engagements with Indigenous learning and teaching aim to shift to more sustainable human-nature relationships where humans are conceived as part of, and connected to, ‘nature’.

The aims of this research program are:

Reinvigorating sustainable communities through enabling people to know, understand and care for their Country   

Deeply connecting with old Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing: Listening to and learning from the traditional knowledge systems of Australia is a way of honouring the knowledge carried for thousands of years, that works to care for the places where we live, in ways sustainable for all Earth-kin.

Building upon experiential rather than abstract learning   

Rebalancing multiple ways of being, knowing and doing:

Here’s what ‘deep listening’ can tell us about the natural world and our place in it, Monty Nixon, PhD Student in Education, University of Canberra. The Conversation, January 28, 2025. 
https://theconversation.com/heres-what-deep-listening-can-tell-us-about-the-natural-world-and-our-place-in-it-235868