We Come From the Past: Orality, Indigeneity and the Flow of Culture

Project Type: Phase 2 Projects - Commissions (Sep 2022-Sep 2023)

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Project Region: Asia Pacific

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Description

Synopsis and Position

The aimwasto create a book that speaks.Spoken on Country by aBarkindjielder and poet, in dialogue with two white poets andfiveBarkindji, Nyempa, Kunya andMurrawarriinterlocutors, taped and then transcribedin the form of a playscript,the bulk ofA Book that Openscomprisesanarchive ofconversation-based knowledge about river management down the Barka / Darling River, and about care of the ancient fish-traps at Brewarrina.The evidence of extensive Aboriginal management of rivers,desertsand forests prior to 1788 is there,but it has been widely ignored by a settler society anxious tomaintainrights over a continentinitiallyclaimed as “unused” land. Focussing on the material andoralevidence of suchcare for Country, the projectconstitutesa practice-based experiment in archiving the kinds of dialogic intellectual practice that indigenous thinkers have sustainedon and around theSouthern islandcontinent forformillennia.Bookend chapters record the project team’s improvisedoralpresentationson the projectin Canberra,bothprior to and afterthese conversations with traditional owners, whichmakes forestranging parallels between conversationalintellectual practiceon campus and out on Country.

Objectives and Methods

By insisting that every word itcontainsinitially be spoken, thebook that forms theproject’s centrepieceaimsto bringbothindigenousand academicconversational practiceto the fore of our literary experience. In the process,itseeksto open new angles on just what a book might be.

Legacy IF page:https://imaginingfutures.world/projects/we-come-from-the-past-orality-indigeneity-and-the-flow-of-culture/