Sustenance: decolonial recipes for wellbeing, self and community care in the academy is a small chapbook that emerged from an informal workshop and online activity held in October 2021. It serves us now as what Narungga academic and poet Natalie Harkin described as a creative “touchstone” of some of our thoughts in the form of recipes, notes, poems, images, playlists, and other forms, that emerged from our virtual gathering.
Primary Landing Page
This space will publish regular conversations that center Indigenous and Pacific voices on issues in and outside of the academy. Learn with us as we continue to think about how to enact a decolonial practice om and beyond the academy and what that means for us as educators, learners, activists, artists and more.
Emelda Davis
(Waskam) Emelda Davis on ASSI and Melanesian Life-Stories in Canberra and Beyond
Before the Oceania Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography’s “Australian South Sea Islander and Melanesian Life-Stories” workshop namba tu with Dr Melinda Mann, Kim Kruger and Imelda Miller, Talei Mangioni sat down with (Waskam) Emelda Davis to talk about her personal connections to Canberra, Black Power and new directions for Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) recognition in New South Wales and support with ASSI – Port Jackson and the City of Sydney.
ASSI And Melanesian Life-Stories: Reflections on Melinda Mann, Kim Kruger and Imelda Miller’s Workshop
ASSI and Melanesian Life-Stories: Reflections on Melinda Mann, Kim Kruger and Imelda Miller’s Workshop
In April 2022, the Oceania Working Party held their second workshop focused on “Australian South Sea Islander and Melanesian Life-Stories” with Dr Melinda Mann, Kim Kruger and Imelda Miller. The workshop brought together Australian South Sea Islander/South Sea Islander (ASSI/SSI) women from across what is now known as Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. The focus of this workshop was to discuss the importance of familial and community life-stories, the ethics and community protocols on work with ASSI communities and strategies for doing Pacific Biography in Australia.
Decolonial Scientific Research
In this piece and Q&A focusing on Personal Reflections on Trans-Indigenous Collaborations in Scientific Research, Mathew Adeleye explains his research and considers his relationality to Indigenous knowledges and Country, highlights the importance of meaningful Indigenous-settler collaborations in research and the need to center Indigenous voices in the process.
Image by Talei Luscia Mangioni and Akil Ahamat
What does “Decolonising the Academy: Trans-Indigenous Possibilities” mean to you?
In this introductory blog post, we talk to some of the original organising committee behind the “Decolonising the Academy” project and ask each member to reflect on their learnings, a year on. In tandem with the film, “Decolonising the Academy: Trans-Indigenous Possibilities,” we hear how being involved in this project manifested slightly different musings, though ultimately bringing everyone together through a shared drive to “unsettle” themselves and others within the academic space of the Australian National University (ANU).