Sydney as an Indigenous place: “Goanna walking” brings people together

Abstract

Sydney, Australia, is rarely seen as an Indigenous place, yet over 52,000 Indigenous people live here. “Indigeneity” persists in educational discourse as a remote phenomenon, but the research reveals otherwise for many Indigenous people who continue to live in Sydney. This is reflected in the contemporary lives of seven Dharug women who constitute the basis of a doctoral project. The seven women disclose how caring and connectivity to place and people continue to be important markers of belonging to Country in the city. This article also draws on Judith Butler’s work to investigate the conditions of possibility for sustained collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Sydney. Through a collaborative project between local Dharug artists and teacher education students, we find that cross-cultural understandings are built through vulnerabilities, as much as they are through reason. Shared vulnerability provides the conditions for meeting on Country, and “goanna walking” takes us there.