AAEE Learning Circle: Welcome to Country as relations

Please join us for our AAEE March Learning Circle: Welcome to Country as relations.

Presented by Whadjuk Nyungar Elder Len Collard, with Sandra Wooltorton (also from Noongar Country) and special guest, Yuin woman and environmental educator Sue Price. 

When: Tuesday, 18 March - 7-8pm AEDT/4-5pm WST.

Where: Online via Zoom.

Cost: Free to all. Donations to the AAEE Public Fund will be gratefully accepted and are tax-deductible (donations over $2). 

We will launch our AAEE 2025 Learning Circle program with this very special Learning Circle. In this conversation with Len Collard and Sandra Wooltorton, we will discuss Welcome to Country ceremonies, before talking about Acknowledgement of Country protocols and the Noongar idea of home-place: karlaboodja. In Noongar language, boodjar means Country, karl means both fire, and home - as in, 'home is where the hearth is'.  These concepts are tied in with the idea of bidi (trail) and bidiyer (leader - person who intimately knows the trails across their Country.) 

Yuin woman and environmental educator Sue Price will contribute original songs and poems to enrich the conversation.

We will also discuss koordaboodja which in Noongar language, means love of Country - and what that might mean - which leads to a conversation about how we see Boodjar and moort (people) as relations. The trilogy of boodjar (Country), moort (people) and kaartdijin (knowledge) are inseparable in Noongar ways of knowing, being and doing. Perhaps people who think they can separate the trilogy at the core of Noongar wellbeing, see strangers in their own backyards? in this conversation, we hope you will see how everything is very deeply related and intertwined! In Noongar Boodjar, Noongar place names describe the vitality - the precolonial enterprising lifeblood - of places. The vitality we refer to is often continuing - we simply need to attune to and reinvigorate it. 

Please join us! All welcome. This session will be recorded and will be available afterwards to AAEE members only, via our Learning Circle library on our website.

Biographies:

Len Collard:  Emeritus Professor Dr Len Collard is a Whadjuk Nyungar elder and respected Traditional Owner of the Perth Metropolitan area and surrounding lands, rivers, swamps, ocean and culture. Dr Collard has a background in literature and communications, with research interests in Aboriginal Studies, including Nyungar interpretive histories and Nyungar theoretical and applied practical research models. Dr Collard has conducted research funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Trust of Western Australia, and many other research institutions and organisations. Len's research has allowed the broadening of the understanding of the many unique characteristics of Australia's Aboriginal people and has contributed enormously to elevating the appreciation of culture and heritage of the Southwest region of Australia. Len’s groundbreaking theoretical work has put Nyungar cultural research on the local, national and international stages.  In 2023 Professor Collard was admitted to the UWA Emeriti Professors College and awarded an honorary PhD in Education from Edith Cowan University.   https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/len-collard

Sandra Wooltorton:  Sandra is a Professor and Senior Research Fellow with the Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Broome Campus. She is a trans-disciplinary researcher, with a background in cultural geography and education, and a deep interest in applying place-based philosophy to generate solutions to problems of society and environment. She leads numerous research projects and in 2023, Sandra convened a Special Issue of the Australian Journal of Environmental Education called, Indigenous Philosophy in Environmental Education: Relearning How to Love, Feel, Hear and Live with Place. Sandra is interested in prefigurative cultures, for co-constructing the world we want to live in; or living the change we want to see. In the Kimberley, the answers are all around us – in Indigenous cultural ways of being and knowing, in landscapes and in knowledge holders. https://www.notredame.edu.au/research/institutes-and-initiatives/nulungu/people/sandra-wooltorton

Sue Price: Sue Price is a descendant of the Yuin Aboriginal People through her mother's line and the descendant of a £10 POM on her father's side. She is a mother of 4 adult children and heaves a sigh of relief that none live at home anymore. Sue is an Environmental Educator of some 30 years standing and has worked in a variety of sectors including local government, consultancy, NSW Environmental Education Centres and was a lecturer for over 10 years at WSU in Education for Sustainability and Aboriginal Perspectives in Education. Sue is also a songwriter and poet who listens to Country for inspiration as well as life experiences. She delivers her songs acapella because she cannot get her fingers and mouth to work at the same time. Here is a wonderful sample: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DowdWh9kv/