Northeast Arnhem Land Research Articles

Can Exclusion of Feral Ecosystem Engineers Improve Coastal Floodplain Resilience to Climate Change? Insight from a Case Study in North East Arnhem Land, Australia

Global climate change can interact with local drivers, such as ecosystem engineers, to exacerbate changes in ecosystem structure and function, with socio-ecological consequences. For regions of Indigenous interest, there may also be cultural consequences if species and areas affected are culturally significant. Here we describe a participatory approach between the Indigenous (Yolngu) Yirralka Rangers and non-Indigenous researchers that explored the interaction between sea level rise and feral ungulate ecosystem engineers on culturally significant floodplains in the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), northern Australia. A feral ungulate exclusion fence array (12 fenced and 12 unfenced plots) was stratified by elevation/salinity to disentangle the effects of salinity and ungulates on floodplain soil and vegetation. We found that exclusion of feral ungulates improved ground cover vegetation, which, according to our literature-derived ecosystem process model, may enhance soil trapping and reduce evapotranspiration to provide the antecedent conditions needed to improve floodplain resilience to sea level rise. The mid-zone of the supratidal floodplain study site was suggested as the region where the benefits of fencing were most pronounced after two years and ground cover species diversity was highest. Ongoing monitoring is required to investigate whether removal of feral ungulates can increase resilience against sea level rise and recruitment of eco-culturally significant Melaleuca species. An interview with a key Yolngu Traditional Owner of the study site demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of the partnership. Yolngu land owners and rangers were active co-researchers and will decide if, when and how to integrate results into feral ungulate management and climate adaptation responses, highlighting the importance of industry-university partnerships in maximising biocultural conservation outcomes.

The Threads That Weave Me

The Threads That Weave Me

Keepers of the flame: songspirals are a university for us

Abstract“Songspirals are a university for us, they are a map of understandings” (Gay’wu Group of Women, 2019, p. 33).This paper is authored by Bawaka Country, acknowledging Country’s ability to teach and share. Country is homeland and place. Country is everything and the relationships that bring everything to life. Country is knowledge. This paper is shaped and enabled by songspirals. Songspirals are sung and cried by Yolŋu people in north east Arnhem Land, Australia, to awaken Country, to make and remake the life-giving connections between people and place.The Goŋ-gurtha songspiral leads this paper, showing us how a Yolŋu Country-led pedagogy centres Country’s active agency by learning through, with, and as Country. This pedagogy shares with us the ongoing connections within and between generations to ensure that knowledge remains strong and that sharing is done the right way, according to Yolŋu Rom, Law/Lore. This learning is predicated on relationality and responsibility. It is a more-than-human learning in which human knowing is decentred and Country is knowledgeable. It is a learning which recognises and respects its limits and it is a learning in which the ongoing sovereignty of Yolŋu people is front and centre.

Re‐assessing regional chronologies for island southeast Asian voyaging to Aboriginal Australia

ABSTRACTAccording to written histories, trepang fishers from Island Southeast Asia (“Makassans”) frequented coastal northern Australia from c.1750 to 1907 CE. Yolŋu oral traditions and old Austronesian borrow words in coastal Aboriginal languages suggest a long and complex history of foreign voyaging to northern Australia. Yet archaeological radiocarbon chronologies for the Southeast Asian trepang industry and earlier voyaging encounters are few and the dates have never been comprehensively reviewed. Only one Arnhem Land trepang fishery site has been dated extensively, and others have produced unusually old dates of c.1200–1500 CE. The Groote Eylandt rockshelter of Dadirrigka yielded an enigmatic sherd of friable earthenware above a radiocarbon date of c.1100 CE. Here we have compiled, reviewed and recalibrated all 49 radiocarbon dates directly associated with Southeast Asian contact sites, stratigraphy and rock art in northern Australia. We discuss the dates and their archaeological contexts region by region to assess their reliability. We also report for the first time Yanyuwa (southwest Gulf of Carpentaria) oral traditions which shed light on their past kinship and exchange relationships with Makassan visitors. The radiocarbon dates provide tentative support for four phases of interaction in northwest Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt, including pre‐Makassan encounters and the organised trepang industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There is a paucity of archaeological excavations and radiocarbon data from northeast Arnhem Land, the Kimberley and the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, where historical writings, linguistics and oral traditions are still the most reliable indicators of the timing and nature of cross‐cultural interaction.

A flow that comes when we’re talking: water metaphors for exploring intercultural communication during early childhood assessment interactions in a Yolŋu (First Nations Australian) community

ABSTRACT Culture mediates how all people think and communicate and intercultural communication skills are required for effective collaboration. This study (2017–2021) explored intercultural communication with 40 participants in one very remote First Nations Australian community in Northern Australia. We explored the perspectives of both Yolŋu (First Nations Australian people from North-East Arnhem Land) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people, in this case Australian) on interactions during early childhood assessments of Yolŋu children (0–6 years). Our intercultural research team used a culturally responsive form of video-reflexive ethnography, a Yolŋu approach to in-depth discussion and collaborative analysis. In this article, we explore nine intercultural communication processes that were recognized and enacted by study participants. Each process is represented by a metaphor drawn from water traveling in North-East Arnhem Land. We share these processes so that others may consider exploring their relevance in other intercultural communication contexts.

Nhaltjan dhu ḻarrum ga dharaŋan dhuḏi-dhäwuw ŋunhi limurr dhu gumurrbunanhamirr ga waŋanhamirr, Yolŋu ga Balanda: how we come together to explore and understand the deeper story of intercultural communication in a Yolŋu (First Nations Australian) community

This study explored intercultural communication from the perspectives of partners from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We used a culturally responsive form of video-reflexive ethnography to study intercultural communication processes between Yolŋu, pronounced Yolngu (First Nations people from the region that is now called North-East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people). Yolŋu and Balanda researchers worked collaboratively throughout the study (2017–2021). In a very remote Yolŋu community in northern Australia, five early childhood assessment interactions were recorded and analysed by the 40 Yolŋu and Balanda participants. Researchers analysed data collaboratively using an approach aligned with constructivist grounded theory. We connected key research findings about intercultural communication processes to a place-based metaphor which foregrounds Yolŋu cultural knowledge and encourages reflection on deeper ways of thinking about how we connect, collaborate and communicate interculturally.

The Whole of Community Engagement initiative: Interculturality in remote Aboriginal education

It is generally accepted by researchers, policy-makers and practitioners that progress in Indigenous education depends on working in partnership with Indigenous people, and that programs and services are best provided in partnership. The 2014–2016 Whole of Community Engagement initiative built a partnership of non-Indigenous researchers with researchers, teachers, education leaders and elders from six remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. In this paper we describe the features that led us to characterise the initiative and the remote community and school context as intercultural and complex. The former included methodology, staffing, meeting procedure and interpersonal communication, negotiation of meaning and decision-making. On the basis of this approach, we found that intercultural complexity was strongly evident in schooling in Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, North East Arnhem Land, which was the community most closely studied by the authors. The paper contributes to the recognition of intercultural complexity in remote Aboriginal schooling, and the potential benefit that its recognition can have for educational outcomes in those contexts.

YArnhem: Co-designing a model of social and emotional wellbeing stepped care for young people of the north east Arnhem region: A development study protocol.

More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people experience high or very high levels of psychological distress compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. This may be partly attributed to systemic barriers resulting in lower rates of help-seeking, sub-optimal identification of psychological challenges, and undertreatment. Reducing these barriers within health systems is an important factor in reducing the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) health burden on young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In partnership with Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation (Miwatj), this project will co-design an integrated youth Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) and mental health stepped care model for remote Aboriginal communities in the north east Arnhem region of the Northern Territory. A collaborative research approach using co-design methods will underpin a community-centric stepped care allocation method, to which culturally appropriate SEWB and mental health interventions and treatments are assigned. These components of the project will inform a digital platform which will facilitate access to SEWB care for young people in north east Arnhem land. This concept was co-developed in a partnership between researchers and Miwatj and builds on Miwatj's previous work to map the stepped needs of young people. The co-design of the content and features of these outputs will be facilitated through community participation and overseen by community, health, and cultural governance structures. This will ensure the solutions developed by the project are culturally responsive, fit for purpose, and will enhance self-determination while reducing systemic barriers to care.

Designing augmentative and alternative communication systems with Aboriginal Australians: vocabulary representation, layout, and access

Yolŋu (Aboriginal Australians of northeast Arnhem Land) are interested in developing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems in their own languages to support communication opportunities and participation for their family members living with Machado–Joseph disease. Designing AAC systems in Aboriginal languages requires consideration of unique linguistic and cultural elements. Participatory action research in strength-based communication contexts was carried out by Yolŋu and Balanda (the Yolŋu word for non-Aboriginal people) researchers working together through a collaborative intercultural process. Culturally responsive literacy, language, and AAC activities were used to develop four prototype Yolŋu AAC sytems for Yolŋu with varied literacy skills. Data were coded using gerunds to identify and focus on action in the data. Reflective and analytical collaborative, oral group discussions were used to identify key considerations and, ultimately, a Yolŋu metaphor for the research. Yolŋu language, culture and worldview impacted all aspects of prototype design and decision making. Salient considerations related to representation, organization, layout, and access, are presented. Clinical implications and future research considerations are outlined.

How do Yolŋu recognise and understand their children's learning? Nhaltjan ŋuli ga Yolŋuy nhäma ga märr-dharaŋan djamarrkuḻiw marŋgithinyawuy?

Indigenous families have culturally-specific strengths, priorities, and methods for assessing their children’s development. Recognition and support of children’s and families’ strengths are important for identity, health and wellbeing. However, strengths can be missed in assessment processes developed in non-Indigenous contexts. Yolŋu are First Nations Australian peoples from North-East Arnhem Land. This study was conducted to explore Yolŋu early childhood development, assessment and support in response to concerns that Yolŋu strengths and priorities are often not recognised. The cultural and linguistic expertise of Yolŋu researchers was central in this qualitative study. Rich empirical data were collected through a form of video reflexive ethnography with six children and their extended families over seven years and through in-depth interviews with 38 other community members. An iterative process of data collection and analysis engaged Yolŋu families and researchers in a collaborative, culturally responsive research process which drew on constructivist grounded theory methods. Findings illustrate how Yolŋu children are immersed in complex layers of intertwined and continuous testing and teaching processes integrating holistic frameworks of cultural identity and connection, knowledge and practices. Yolŋu families monitor and recognise a child’s development through both direct and explicit testing and through observing children closely so that children can be supported to keep learning and growing into their knowledge, strengths and identity. Yolŋu expressed concern that such learning is invisible when the child is viewed through non-Yolŋu lenses and assessed with processes and tools from outside the community. Indigenous peoples have a right to culturally congruent assessment of their children. Those who share the child’s culture and language have the expertise to ensure that cultural strengths and priorities are recognised and understood.

Yolngu Country as a Multidimensional Tangle of Relationships How ‘Everything is Linked to One Another’

This paper explores how Australian Indigenous people express their mutual life‑giving bonds with other‑than‑humans such as animals, plants, natural features, and land in terms of kinship relationships. I will describe an ‘ontology of connectivity’ and a ‘mutuality of being’ among living beings in terms of reciprocal responsibility, interdependence, cooperation and care. In reference to my ethnographic research in Northeast Arnhem Land, I insist on the priority of relating, and on the affective nature of multispecies relationships, and illustrate how these are celebrated, maintained and reactivated through ceremonial songs, as well as new forms of music.

Decolonisation, Indigenisation and Digital Returns: Two Case Studies from Australia

This article centres on two digital return projects led by Yolngu community stakeholders from North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Both projects illustrate how concepts of decolonisation and Indigenisation have been mobilised by Yolngu people within an affirmative action framework to overcome past malpractices, and to bring about a transformative environment of cultural reclamation and sovereignty. Both projects have served as pioneering models for digital return initiatives in Australia and internationally. The discussion begins by briefly addressing some of the critical differences between repatriation and the return of documentary heritage in the form of digital ‘archives’ (including collection images and provenance data, photographs, film and sound recordings). It then outlines two different but related pathways taken by Yolngu stakeholders in establishing cultural archiving projects, each centred on decolonising and indigenising museum collections through collaborative partnerships with museums and universities. Inherent in these discussions is the idea that decolonisation is complex, multi-sited and multifocal. The article concludes by arguing that museums need to be more proactive in reconnecting communities with collections. Working collaboratively with First Nations and formerly colonised peoples to restore cultural knowledge lost as a direct result of colonisation is a vital step for moving forward.

Räl-manapanmirr ga dhä-manapanmirr – Collaborating and connecting: Creating an educational process and multimedia resources to facilitate intercultural communication

Purpose: Yolŋu Ŋ(First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people) often encounter communication challenges at a cultural interface during the provision of health and education services. To address these challenges, our project co-created an educational process and resources to inform and facilitate intercultural communication. During interactive workshops, participants and researchers from different cultural backgrounds reflected on their communication practice together in small groups. Reflection and discussion during the workshops were supported by multi-media resources designed to be accessible and resonant for both Yolŋu and Balanda partners. Participants explored and implemented strategies during intercultural engagement within and beyond the workshop. In this article we explain our processes of co-creating intercultural communication education and share features of our educational process and resources that resonated with participants from both cultural groups. Method: Our intercultural team of researchers used a culturally-responsive approach to Participatory Action Research (PAR) to co-create an intercultural communication workshop and multi-media resources collaboratively with 52 Yolŋu and Balanda end-users. Result: Collaborating (the power and value of genuine collaboration and engagement throughout the process) and connecting (the meeting and valuing of multiple knowledges, languages and modes of expression) were key elements of both our methods and findings. Our processes co-created accessible, inclusive, collaborative spaces in which researchers and participants were actively supported to implement intercultural communication processes as they learned about them. Conclusion: Our work may have relevance for others who are developing educational processes and resources for facilitating intercultural communication in ways that honour participants’ voices, challenge inaccessible systems, resonate with diverse audiences and create opportunities for research translation. Explanation of terms • Yolŋu are First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. • Balanda is a term used by speakers of Yolŋu languages to refer to non-Indigenous people. • First Nations Australians is used to include diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. This term recognises the identities of First Nations peoples who hold unceded sovereignty over their lands and waters. • The pronouns we, us and our are used to refer to the intercultural research team who are also authors (i.e. Emily, Gapany, Ḻäwurrpa, Yuŋgirrŋa and supervisors Anne, Lyn and Sarah). When sharing other people’s perspectives, or the voices of individual researchers, the text will specify whose voice is being shared.

Gapu, water, creates knowledge and is a life force to be respected

In this piece, we share about gapu, water. Gapu gives life for a person and the land. Gapu nurtures and holds connection; it is knowledge and power, belonging and boundaries. We share as an Indigenous and non-Indigenous more-than-human collective, the Bawaka Collective, led by Bawaka Country and senior Yolŋu sisters Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs and Banbapuy Ganambarr, who speak from our place, our Country, our homeland, Rorruwuy, Dätiwuy land and Bawaka, Gumatj land, in Northeast Arnhem Land, Australia. Our piece follows the Songspiral Wukun, Gathering of the Clouds, and shares that water has many meanings, much knowledge and Law that must be respected. People and water co-become together. There is not one water but many, that hold balance. If we come together, waters, knowledges, peoples, acknowledging and respecting our differences, we can make rain.

Bakmaranhawuy - the broken connection. Perspectives on asking and answering questions with Yolŋu patients in healthcare contexts.

Questioning is a key method in general information-seeking behaviour and teaching used by the dominant culture in Australia. Within an Australian health context the fundamental diagnostic tool used by medical staff is the biomedical interview or history taking, which is based on a battery of direct questions. Similarly, many health professionals rely on patient questions to prompt the sharing of information, or to make them aware of gaps in communication. This is problematic for many First Nations peoples, including Yolηu (First Nations people of North-East Arnhem Land), who are culturally less inclined to use direct questioning as it is deemed impolite within their cultural context. Semi-structured conversational interviews using culturally congruent communication processes were conducted with participants in their preferred language. Interviews were translated, transcribed and analysed inductively using NVivo v12. A total of 30 participants were interviewed (10 health staff and 20 Yolηu with recent experience in engaging with health services). All participating health staff believed that questioning was essential for determining how to best treat patients but many felt that questions created problems for some Yolηu patients. They also felt that Yolηu patients ask fewer questions related to their health issues than patients of other cultures. Yolηu participants conveyed overwhelmingly negative experiences with the health system and at the tertiary hospital in particular. Yolηu participants described feelings of frustration, fear and trauma when talking of their experiences, and these feelings were often direct outcomes of poor communication with staff. Regarding the use of questions in health care specifically, Yolηu participants identified four key and interrelated conditions within which questioning was deemed an acceptable communication mechanism. Dhämanapan (connection) was identified as an essential condition for effective communication between health staff and patients. This connection was established and maintained through a shared understanding of matha (language), dukmaram (Yolηu understandings of healing) and djuηuny (Yolηu norms of polite communication). Strategies for overcoming barriers to effective communication related to the concept of dhuwurr (skill) in health communication, which could increase the acceptability of health staff asking questions of Yolηu and the confidence of Yolηu patients in asking questions of health staff. The findings from this study indicate a fundamental disconnect between the current health system and the needs of the Yolηu patients it seeks to serve. In order for this to change, Yolηu patients and health staff need to develop dhuwurr in health communication, which incorporates the four key conditions for effective communication identified in this study. To achieve this, ongoing and mandatory intercultural communication training for health staff is needed, just as mandatory training is required for hygiene and resuscitation training. Intercultural communication training must be comprehensive - reflecting the complexity involved in developing this dhuwurr - and sustained, for example with ongoing support from cultural communication mentors.

Homeland Story: Friendship and filmmaking in Donydji homeland, North East Arnhem Land

This is the edited transcript of Session 5 of the Symposium on Creative Collaborations in Intercultural and Intermedial Spaces, convened by Creative Arts and English, La Trobe University, 7-9 July 2020. This session, chaired by Hester Joyce, began with an online screening of the documentary film, Homeland story. The screening was followed by a Q&A on Zoom with filmmaker, Glenda Hambly, and anthropologist, Neville White. This edited transcript of the post-screening discussion concludes with an afterword by Glenda Hambly: At the end came the script.

Review Essay on Illustrated Handbook of Yolŋu Sign Language of North East Arnhem Land by BentleyJames, A.C.D.Adone, and E.L.Mypliama (eds). (Australian Book Connection. 2020)

Review Essay on Illustrated Handbook of Yolŋu Sign Language of North East Arnhem Land by BentleyJames, A.C.D.Adone, and E.L.Mypliama (eds). (Australian Book Connection. 2020)

Feeling through your chest

AbstractThis article explores the expression and conceptualisation of emotions in Anindilyakwa (Gunwinyguan, north-east Arnhem Land). Fundamental to the emotional lexicon of this language is the widespread use of body parts, which frequently occur in figurative expressions. In this article I examine the primary body parts that occur in emotion descriptions in both literal (physical) and figurative expressions. Particular attention is given toyukudhukudha /-werrik- ‘chest’, the body part conceptualised as the primary site of emotion in Anindilyakwa and the most productive body-related morpheme used in emotion compounds. I consider the role of the chest and other productive body parts that occur in emotion compounds, and examine the metonymic and metaphorical devices that contribute to the expression of these emotional states. In doing so, I propose a number of overarching and widespread tropes that hold across different body-part compounds, and briefly contextualise these in relation to the emotion description systems of other closely-related (Gunwinyguan) languages.

A politics of care in urban public housing: housing precarity amongst Yolŋu renal patients in Darwin

People with chronic diseases are likely to require some form of domestic care, however their care needs acquire low visibility in housing policy frameworks. Amongst Yolŋu (Indigenous Australians from north-east Arnhem Land), high rates of kidney disease reinforce needs for housing and care. I consider how access to housing shapes relations and practices of care in the families of Yolŋu renal patients in Darwin, Australia; and how Yolŋu relations and practices of care are implicated in housing policy. Through an ethnographic case study approach, I show that in Yolŋu families, practices of extending shelter to kin are care practices fundamental to the performance of domestic labour. I argue that while housing policy frameworks rely on familial relations and practices of care to reduce rough sleeping and achieve other policy objectives, Yolŋu relations and practices of care are also marginalised through the governance of public housing. The politics of care that play out in their places of residence reproduce housing precarity.

Finding a pathway and making it strong: Learning from Yolŋu about meaningful health education in a remote Indigenous Australian context.

Access to meaningful health information is limited in remote regions of Australia where Indigenous languages and culture are strong but the prevalence of chronic conditions is extremely high. This qualitative study aimed to support and understand the evolution of an educational approach to improve communication about chronic conditions for Yolŋu (Aboriginal people of Northeast Arnhem Land). Within a culturally responsive research design, data were gathered through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with educators and community members. An iterative and continuous process of data collection and inductive analysis, exploring key elements of the process as it evolved, supported the Project Team to modify and refine their approach as the project progressed. A high level of community participation and control was a critical element of the project. Collaboration between Yolŋu educators and community experts, with culturally competent support from others, enabled Yolŋu to share health information in ways that could not be achieved by outsiders. Yolŋu and biomedical knowledges were integrated to build and share meaningful, in-depth (not simplified or directive) oral explanations in local languages using culturally responsive communication processes. The urgent need for ongoing, sufficient and meaningful health education was a consistent and recurring theme in this context where chronic conditions are having a devastating impact. Sustained and equitable access to meaningful information, using a culturally responsive approach led by community educators, is crucial to improve health literacy and to enable genuinely informed decisions in prevention and management of chronic conditions. Long-term funding is needed to support ongoing programs. These findings may have relevance for others who do not share the culture and language of the majority population. SO WHAT?: Equity of access to meaningful health information through sustained support for community-led education processes is essential to improve First Nations health outcomes.