THE RE-(E)MERGENCE OF NATURE IN CULTURE II When: Thursday 11 – Friday 12 July, 2019 Venue: The Sutherland Room Holme Building, Science Road, University of Sydney 1 The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Day 1: Thursday 11 July, 2019 Sutherland Room | Holme Building, Science Rd, University of Sydney Guest Wifi Details Username: reemergence Password: 90026618 8.30 – 9.00 Registration and refreshments 9.00 – 9.15 Welcome to country – Yvonne Weldon, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council Welcome to conference – Christine Winter, University of Sydney 9.15 – 10.45 Session 1: New Law Mary Graham, The University of Queensland Michelle Maloney, Australian Earth Laws Alliance Future Law: How ancient and emerging ecological law can be a foundation for Australian society 10.45 – 11.10 MORNING TEA 11.10 – 12.40 Session 2: Woven Law/Weaving Spaces Eddie Synot, Griffith University Woven Law Catherine Donnelly, University of Sydney Weaving inclusive spaces Jakelin Troy, University of Sydney TBC 12.40 – 1.30 LUNCH 1.30 – 3.00 Session 3: Valuing Indigenous Science Virginia Marshall, ANU Indigenous Australia and Post-truth Climate Change: The value of Indigenous Science Mitchell Gibbs, University of Sydney Parents Know Best 2 The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Day 1: Cont. Sutherland Room | Holme Building, Science Rd, University of Sydney 3.00 – 3.30 AFTERNOON TEA 3.30 – 5.00 Session 4: Reconfiguring Relationships Alice Te Punga Sommerville, University of Waikato “I have to produce the background:” the edges of Indigenous lives. Huhana Smith, Massey University Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies – Artists and Climate Change Transition Action Planning for Coastal Māori Communities. 5.00 Close and Refreshments 3 The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Day 2: Friday 12 July, 2019 Sutherland Room | Holme Building, Science Rd, University of Sydney Guest Wifi Details Username: reemergence Password: 90026618 8.30 – 9.00 Coffee/Tea at Courtyard Bar 9.00 – 10.30 Session 5: Film Screening: River of Life Anne Poelina, Madjulla Incorporated River of Life – A Film Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Science Road 10.30 – 10.45 MORNING TEA 10.45 – 12.15 Session 6: Relentless waves of violence Juanita Sherwood, University of Sydney A fresh wave of colonial violence: Climate Change, Health & Australia’s First Nations Peoples. Sophie Chao, University of Sydney Mapping More-Than-Human Worlds in an Age of Mass Extinction: Indigenous Cartography in West Papua. 12.15 – 1.00 LUNCH 1.00 – 2.30 Session 7: Waves forward: resisting (neo)colonialism Jess Pasisi, University of Waikato Resisting colonial ideologies - Niuean Women’s perspectives on and experiences of climate change Christine Winter, University of Sydney Te Awa Tupua, Te Urewera and Taranaki: entangled representation 4 The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Day 2: Cont. Sutherland Room | Holme Building, Science Rd, University of Sydney 2.30 – 3.00 AFTERNOON TEA 3.00 – 4.30 Session 8: Closed Roundtable Discussion (Speakers) – Outputs 5.00 Event Close 5 The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Thursday 11 – Friday 12 July, 2019 Sutherland Room | Holme Building, Science Rd, University of Sydney Abstracts (in order of appearance) Future Law: How ancient and emerging ecological law can be a foundation for Australian society Mary Graham, The University of Queensland & Michelle Maloney, Australian Earth Laws Alliance Western: What is the meaning of life? Aboriginal: What is it that wants to know? The failure of modern human societies to effectively govern our relationship with the natural world requires a systemic analysis; an analysis that enables us to see the underlying causes behind our insatiable consumption of nature and to rethink the very foundations of our legal, political, economic and cultural worldviews. This systemic analysis requires us to focus on the structures we create in human societies, and the logic and power imbalances that have brought us to where we are. We write from the perspective of two very different cultural traditions: a Kombumerri woman, whose people have lived on their land and sea country, their ‘traditional estate’ on the East coast of Australia for millennia, and a woman who is a descendant of the Irish convicts who were sent, unwillingly, to Australia less than 200 years ago, as part of the British imperial and colonial project. We come from extremely different cultural backgrounds, but we are passionately interested in similar questions: how do we respond to the ecological crisis in Australia? How do we create a culture where all Australians care for the environment and for one other, and build a sustainable future? And how do we build this future in a nation-state that has not yet dealt with the horrors of its colonial past, or the ongoing violence of its colonial present? A sustainable future for Australia must be built on justice for the First Nations Peoples who have endured colonisation since 1788, when the British Empire claimed the continent as its newest penal colony. In Part I of our presentation we use Earth jurisprudence to critique the underpinning governance structures of industrial society. In Part II we introduce some of the foundational concepts of Aboriginal law and ethics, including the key concept that the land is the source of the law. In Part III we discuss how core elements of Aboriginal law and ethics and emerging ecological law (Earth jurisprudence) can inform the creation of a new way forward for Australian society. Mary Graham is a Kombumerri person (Gold Coast) through her father’s heritage and affiliated with Wakka Wakka (South Burnett) through her mother’s people. Mary has worked across several government agencies, community organisations and universities including: Department of Community Services, Aboriginal and Islander Childcare Agency, the University of Queensland and the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action. Mary has also worked extensively for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, as a Native 6 Title Researcher and was also a Regional Counsellor for the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Mary has been a lecturer with The University of Queensland, teaching Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy. She has also lectured nationally on these subjects, and developed and implemented ‘Aboriginal Perspective’s’, ‘Aboriginal Approaches to Knowledge’ and at the post- graduation level ‘Aboriginal Politics’ into university curricula. Michelle Maloney holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University. She has more than 25 years experience designing and managing climate change, sustainability and environmental justice projects in Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the USA, and this includes ten years working with indigenous colleagues in Central Queensland on a range of community development, sustainability and cultural heritage projects. Michelle met and fell in love with Earth jurisprudence and Wild Law in 2009 and since 2011 has been working to promote the understanding and practical implementation of Earth centred law, governance and ethics in Australia through her work with AELA. Woven Law Eddie Synot, Griffith University Weaving, or the weave – similar to a tie that binds or a relation that links – provides the methodological principle and practice of Woven Law. Weaving is a fundamental practice in many Indigenous cultures, playing a key role in maintaining and producing life and order according to, and within, Indigenous societies and cultures. This importance is represented in the practice of collecting the different grasses used in weaving. This practice places and situates Indigenous peoples within their environments as relational beings. This placement is further demonstrated by the life, social and cultural endeavours supported by woven objects such as carrying children and food, to being used in housing, to further use as ceremonial instruments and clothing. The weave and weaving binds and layers Indigenous peoples and communities in different ways, connecting and holding people and place in differential ways together and allowing for those binds and layers to be rediscovered, produced and healed through weaving. The weave is not easily destroyed due to its layered and interwoven nature. Separate binds touch and relate to hold each other together in their differential and often incongruent roles as producing and maintaining patterned and relational being. Indigenous jurisprudential traditions emphasise the place, space and relational based nature of their production and life. Within this understanding, the weave is not static and neither is the law. The weave is law and the practice of weaving is not only productive of law but is living the law of relation. To be lawful is to live in relation, as the weave binds Indigenous being in this relation. Indigenous interactions with settler colonialism demonstrate the ways in which continuities and discontinuities are woven into the experience and event of settler colonialism as experienced by Indigenous peoples. These events and experiences are carried through Indigenous lives, as woven beings, where the past is intimately woven with the present and future. Woven law has implications not only for the way we understand the issues we face, but also for the proceeding responsibilities and obligations that we have from being situated as relational beings. Understanding this produces different and