Australia becoming ... a conversation with Mary Graham - 7 July

Over the past twenty-five years, Aunty Mary Graham (Kombumerri/Wakka Wakka) has written and spoken about a wide range of the elements of the sophisticated Aboriginal Worldview. 

Now, in a series of monthly Conversations, we have a chance to talk directly with her and Uncle Ross Timmulbar Williams (Bindai/Erub and Mer) and examine how the ethics of a society that has maintained its stability on this continent for over 65,000 years can offer ways for new becoming for Australia in our challenging future. 

The 7 July Conversation

In a series of papers published on the ABC website in July 2021, Aunty Mary Graham and her colleague Morgan Brigg (Polsis UQ), noted that:

“We have previously argued that Aboriginal political philosophy can be thought of as a constellation of cross-referencing and mutually entangled concepts. Country serves as a grounding phenomenon, but is enmeshed with other concepts including relational obligation, autonomy and proportionality in a type of thoroughgoing relationalism."  

Aunty Mary and Uncle Ross would like to take you through these papers in one of their relaxed, lively and enquiring exchanges.

We invite you to read these articles, which are available here, and come along with your thoughts and questions.

A chat over lunch

Our discussions in these Conversations are expansive and rich. But, as Aunty Mary and Uncle Ross often remind us, you don’t learn Stewardship just by talking about it. You have to be doing it.

So this time, we’re going to leave time for a hearty lunch, at a long table, with a good long chat about how we’d like to put what we are hearing into practice. Under Stewardship.

For the September Conversation, we will be inviting everyone out to Cedar Creek, where these gatherings started, to talk about regeneration on Country. We have plenty of ideas of what “on the ground” might involve out there. We'll tell you about them and we’d like to hear yours. 

And what might we do in the city? How might we connect the two places? Forest regeneration under Aboriginal Stewardship? Building a new food chain with Aboriginal-bred food plants? What about “horizontal” governance in a Pop-up Regenerative Village?

So this Sunday we’ll break for lunch at 12:00, set up the trestle tables and share a hotpot or two. Bring any food you’d like to add. And let’s have a lively discussion.

The Program

We start at 10:00 am with the Acknowledgement of Country, but you're welcome to come along early, say 9:30, to meet and mix beforehand. The jug will be on for tea and coffee. 

We break for morning tea when we can (it's easy to lose track of time when immersed in conversation with these two engaging speakers). Then we keep talking we break at midday. 

Then lunch and more talking until we close at 1:00. 

The venue 

80 Boundary Road, Bardon is right on the 471 or 475 bus stop, twenty minutes from the CBD. There is plenty of on-street parking nearby.