PRIVILEGING AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Sweet Potatoes, Spiders, Waterlilys, and Brick Walls

Lilyology reclaims and repositions Australian Indigenous Knowings in a vibrant, theorizing space. It navigates terrain within and between Indigenous Knowings and Western Knowledges. Indigenous Knowings are fundamentally different to Western Knowledges, and many Indigenous researchers/educators struggle in finding their place within the framework of Western Knowledge. At the same time, non-Indigenous researchers/educators are challenged to understand and contextualise Indigenous Knowings as ontologies and epistemologies in their own right. This book hypothesizes this difference by navigating a space of colliding trajectories, urging forward the author and other Indigenous researchers/educators to pursue alternate ways to express, operate within, and find ways to play in this space. This book uses metaphor, story, and imaging to embody the author's own Knowing through the crafting of Lilyology with waterlilys, sweet potatoes, spiders, and brick walls.