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Reflecting on 'Our knowledge, Our practice, Our stories' Moale James, 2022

Heavy winds roll off the ocean, whistling against the walls. Stepping outside the sand blows up and whips my ankles. Above me, dark grey clouds, ominous, but only a tease. Just as quickly as the clouds appeared above, they are broken releasing a small morning shower, the steaminess in the air passing as the rain also does. There it is, behind the clouds the sun emerges, it’s beams darkening my skin, breaking old tan lines, and forming new ones.

Holding a coconut fan I cool my face, wiping the beads of sweat off my brow. My hair inflating and becoming coarse as the humidity rises. Sweaty thighs, kissed with sea breeze walking through the street, passing ficus trees. My meri blouse picks up in the wind, Auntie Wossi’s woven coconut frond hat is held down tightly upon my head.

In the distance a family having a picnic by the ocean, Island rooster cooking oil dripping down their fingers. The laughter of small children fishing on the wharf, their sounds echoing down the boardwalk with me, travelling out to the mainland.

The water is a palette of blue, spreading across the landscape, as far as I can see.

Faintly in the distance, Australia… I stand at the edge of the wharf and wave back home, acknowledging that the person I was when I stepped off the ferry is not the same one returning.

I write this reflection in disbelief of how this project has impacted and changed every aspect of my life.

I have questioned and ended relationships; changed career pathways; participated in uncomfortable conversations; stood my ground and defended myself even as my voice shakes; critically reflected on and changed my own opinions; slept for hours from burn out; questioned my place in these conversations and this world; punished myself as a result of imposter syndrome...

– all this to say this is exactly what you should be experiencing when you intentionally make the choice to engage, elevate and embed the knowledge, voices, work and cultural practices of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific Islander women in my relationships and work.

I have travelled back home to Darwin, Northern Territory to remind myself of the ways communities can and do incorporate the living histories and stories of our First Nations communities.

I have travelled even further to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait Islands, stood at the highest point of the island, and caught a glimpse of home – Papua New Guinea; to then walk back down the mountain to be with this new community of friends and respected elders.

I have participated in the development of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial with a team of mentors that have taught me so many new skills I never could have learned outside of these opportunities. My networks have expanded across mediums, state borders and indeed oceans.

I have spoken with women all over Australia and New Zealand with whom I have cried with, laughed with and reflected deeply about the many environmental factors impacting our wellbeing and success as First Nations Australian and Oceanic women to so-called Australia and the Pacific Islands.

I come to the end of this project writing this reflection and I want to acknowledge before I offer an ‘answer’ to my research question that these conversations are ongoing and ever-evolving. There are also no ‘masters’ of knowledge when it comes to answering such a complex question, which is why my answer is informed by the advice of many women and communities of the present and our past.

How do we actively engage, elevate, enact and embed the cultural practices, knowledge, voices and work of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific Islander women in our workplaces and relationships?"

To answer this question I built upon the concept of, ‘Three cups of tea’, which I spoke about in my TedX Talk in 2016.

This concept explored the idea that the way we begin developing relationships with people and communities we are unfamiliar with is by taking the time to sit with each other at an equal level (with no power plays), share a drink or a meal over a period of time and continue learning more about each other - explore our similarities and discuss our differences. A key outcome of this concept was that these relationships do not form over night but that they take time and the right intentions.

Building upon this concept of ‘Three cups of tea’, for this project I learned quickly the journalistic timelines I was trained to follow weren’t suitable when it came to exploring the topics and themes in discussion.

Sometimes the development of feature articles would take months with back and forth conversation. Podcast episodes required outreach of participants months in advance, having a conversation about the purpose of the project and giving people the time to reflect with themselves and their community about whether it was appropriate they participated and what their voice would offer.

The ‘answer’ to this research question is ever evolving and changing, so rather than offer an answer I wanted to encourage project participants to suggest questions for reflection.

I am a firm believer that if we are more open to critical reflection then we are also kinder to ourselves and others when it comes to changing our opinions. Also, by posing questions, if we do not know the answer then we naturally - as curious beings - have a desire to find the answer.

Many of the questions asked were encouraging individuals and institutions to reflect on their own organisations and relationships; their ways of working, whether they were inclusive or sticking to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. In the spirit of this reflection again, I’d like to pose further questions to the individual and the institutions:

Starting first with acknowledging the country and the land that we step upon…

Do you know who the traditional custodians of the land you live on are?

Do you or does your workplace create spaces for your colleagues to learn more about the traditional custodians and the history of the land you live and work on?

Do you or does your workplace create safe spaces for women, men and non-binary folk to share their cultural knowledge of land history?

Looking then to staffing and representation…

Look at your board, your staff and are there any people that look like me or my community? What representation do you have in your organisation?

Where do you display and how do you enact your strategies and goals for action to develop cultural awareness in your organisation?

How do you determine who is knowledgeable and what is relevant and highly regarded knowledge? Is the person who has culture ingrained in their being from before they were born as ‘smart’ as the one who studied at university?

How does your organisation allow opportunities for First Nations people’s to be the masters of their own stories?

On creating opportunities for cultural practice and considerations….

What opportunities do you create for those belonging to culturally diverse backgrounds to practice their culture?

Who are the people in your organisation creating culturally safe spaces? Are there people in this organisation?

Are you appropriately protecting cultural safety advocates - mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially?

What are you doing to actively listen?

What are you doing to allow yourself and your staff to engage with community? Are they given the time to go out into the community and begin forming relationships?

When it comes to culturally significant events, like sorry business or initiation ceremonies what time and space do you give people and your staff to fully engage and complete these practices?

When it comes to engaging and elevating with resources…

Whose voices are you engaging with? What cultural backgrounds do they come from? Do their opinions differ to yours and are they forcing you to question your own opinions?

What businesses do you buy from? What mana (good spirit) is associated with these things? What is the whakapapa (genealogy) of these? - who is at benefit?

What resources do you elevate? Is it one written by and for community, or are they developed by people disconnected from community?

I could ask multiple questions, but it would mean that you wouldn’t have to do the work. So I hope that these initial questions will encourage you to ask more questions, to have more conversations with new individuals and begin that process of ‘Three cups of tea’.

In addition to these reflections I also invited five mentors to offer insight - Cecelia See-Kee, Jackie Bennett, Lessa Watego, Sosefina Fuamoli and Ranu James. This is what we developed…

Cecelia See-Kee and Jackie Bennett reflected on the question in relation to culturally inclusive education programs in this reflective conversation.

Sosefina Fuamoli reflected on the question in relation to the arts sector and how a way of elevating community is by creating permanent opportunities for them to be a part of the creative production process, she shares her reflections on the question here.

Photo Credit: Michelle Grace Hunder

Lessa Watego is a multi-talented woman wearing many hats in her community. She is a Small Business and Digital Media Trainer, Indigenous Business Sector Growth Advocate and the Founder of Deadly Bloggers. I posed the research question to her and she reflected on the difficulty to answer this question and that her place in her work is to create the fertile ground for others to do the work.

Photo Credit: Leesa Watego, LinkedIn

Ranu James and I developed a visual way of answering the question in a diagram which explored the ways we 'weave relationships'.

Photo Credit: Moale James

Weaving relationships are key to engaging, elevating and embedding Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific Islander perspectives, voices and work into our workplaces and relationships. Developed in collaboration by Moale James and Ranu James (2022).

At the centre of this research we were exploring the way we ‘weave relationships is circular - not transactional - they must continually be worked upon for them to grow.

These relationships should be authentic - they shouldn't be about ticking a box in your reconciliation action plan or in your cultural competency training. Authentic relationships should bring joy and prosperity to both parties.

These relationships must be intentional - you must have a clear focus and purpose for these which is communicated to all parties. By doing this you can also identify value in these relationships and are conscious of what things will nourish these relationships.

These relationships must be reciprocal - exchange with mutual benefit is of the highest priority.

These relationships must be respectful - mutual trust, communication, understanding, honesty and all the many things that you value in a relationship. To begin your relationship you can ask the question of what the other party values and sees as respectful, it may be different to you - but that is okay.

And the only way for us to make this happen is by having conversation over periods of time. You'll notice that this diagram also shows that there are multiple layers to this process and this concept of layers of knowledge was explored by Professor Martin Nakata in his publication, ‘Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the Discipline’. These layers and levels of knowledge are surpassed by having more conversations and creating more relationships with this concept of ‘Three cups of tea’.

This diagram follows a similar concept that as our levels of knowledge continue to grow so too do we enter different circles of conversation. At first we might be having 'surface level' conversations because we're still beginning these relationships. But eventually, over time, we enter spaces and conversations where because our trust has grown with each other we start having deeper conversations, e.g. cultural protocols, intergenerational trauma, land management and many other topics which we can see in the outer circle of the diagram.

So... can I answer this research question? Not in a feature article, not even in a series of feature articles, podcast episodes and a database of resources.

But, what I can say to those who have followed the project (to whom I want to say THANK YOU and you probably by now have already reached the same answer), is that these levels of conversations; in the same way that our communities are ever evolving and changing is that these answers too should and must change.

The answers to the questions do not belong in an anthropological text or a project report to sit on someones desk or on a bookshelf gathering dust. But, as we are living people with living and ever-changing histories and practices, our answers to these questions must mimick these also.

Our conversations and 'answers' to these topics are ever-changing, we are critical thinkers and reflectors.

It may not be the answer that you want, it may not even be the easy answer.

But - it is the answer that is bringing communities of individuals - whether they are familiar with each other or not - to sit together, talanoa and yarn together. Share a meal or just a cup of tea and learn something new about the way we live our lives and what brings us to this place that we call home.

Some things to remember:

  • Everyone must have opportunity to have a voice.
  • You need to create time for conversations.
  • This is a journey, not an overnight solution - time matters and there is value in taking time.
  • Put your money where your mouth is. If you want to see change you have to be willing to fund those associated costs.
  • Everyone is at a different stage in their journey of embedding cultural perspectives, so be kind to others and yourself.
  • The benefit of having people at multiple stages is that those who are ahead of your journey can support you, and you can support others on their way up.
  • Take the time to see from other viewpoints. Have patience.
  • Give people the time to build authentic, intentional, reciprocal and respectful relationships.
  • Think of sustainability of relationships and work, does this project and these changes have an end-date or are you making this apart of practice?
  • Don't be a gatekeeper, there should be opportunity for two-way initiatives and for access to knowledge where appropriate.
  • What opportunities do you have for mentors to create and enrich community connection?
  • Relationships should be circular, not transactional.
  • If you have an opportunity to be an advocate, then do so - even if it might be scary.
  • Value all roles - creative, educative, healing, etc. We are all members of a community and each role is important.
  • Trauma exists, even if you don't experience it personally.
  • There are so many layers of culture to create a sense of belonging and becoming.
  • ....and so much more
Created By
Moale James
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