Our Fire Stories

Abstract

The directional learning path our Indigenous Knowloegde (IK) reveals, is happening and emerging in a way that is based in our lore and systems. What I refer to here in Australia is over 60, 000 years of continuous cultural knowledge connected around 60,000 years’ worth of campfires. The pattern which we gather and sit around these campfires is in circle. And the circle pattern we have gathered around these times creates a distinct flow of energy and knowledge transfer. The distinct pattern of IK transfer at Deakin’s Indigenous Knowledge System Lab (IKSL) now, can be understood in four ways, IK in Production; Transmission; Application and Regeneration. We see emergence through the patterns and stories that are brought through following the whisps of smoke from the fire – the unseen made known through the form of smoke - dgumge. To pay homage to our beginnings in shares and development of knowledge’s we write together as part of the ‘IK pattern’ of yarning (Yunkaporta, 2019), we use in Labs – us/only, us/twos and us/all ways of communicating. This paper is a way for us/two, Dr. Rhonda Coopes – palawa and Dr. John Davis – Cobble Cobble, as fellow countrywomen and men, camped around these IKSL fires, to give some markers, lay some tracks, make sense of the paths we take through the ever-emerging patterns of IKSL yarns, actions, and project activities.