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of knowledge associated with places and time. The concept of Country is itself a form of Indigenous knowledge. Deborah Bird Rose has written of the Aboriginal concept of Country as that of “a living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness and a will toward life,”9 a rich description that places the temporal at the heart of any conceptualizing of place or landscape (in a landscape architectural sense). Janet McGaw and Anoma Pieris quote Marcia Langton in describing “Story” as a “spiritual power that is ubiquitous in particular persons and places...an essence that is immutable”10 and which is enmeshed within the concept of Country through a living relationship: “‘to be’ is to know one’s Story and to enact it on Country.” For the workshop, story-telling was enabled through ‘yarning,’ an approach that affords each party the opportunity to situate themselves in the story of the other. In doing so, each party is also then situated in and on Country. The understanding of Country is dependent on the unfurling of the understanding of one’s part in it, and can only be gained in relation to the parts of others engaged in the yarn. It is a process that takes time and requires patience, as well as an inclination to listening deeply. In the sense that the yarn might be considered to be circuitous and processdriven—fundamentally iterative as stories loop through time and do not seek the resolution of problems—it shares characteristics with the idea of Gadamer’s hermeneutic circle. In response to local Indigenous stories, and with regard to sites of cultural and environmental significance, participants in the workshop were asked to produce mappings that would demonstrate a specific relationship to an element of the landscape – Country, as it became. Time spent on Country during the workshop was quite short: for most participants, two nights and three days. The structuring of this time revolved around two more or less formal walks in which participants were introduced to specific sites of significance during which knowledge holders shared stories of the specific nature of these places and things. Participants also engaged in less-formal conversation over meals and food in a shared kitchen or around the large group campfire. Punctuating both these formal and informal activities, participants were also undertaking a form of cartography in locating themselves both spatially in the context of the property and temporally through the stories being exchanged – the yarn being a locating
1 Margaret Somerville, Water in a Dry Land: Place Learning Through Art and Story (Routledge, 2013), 56. 2 Hans-Georg Gadamer, “On the Circle of Understanding,” in J.M. Connolly and T. Keutner (eds) Hermenutics versus Science? Three German Views (University of Notre Dame Press, 1998). 3 Paul Kidder, Gadamer for Architects (Routledge, 2013). 4 For ease of reference, the spelling Barkandji (used by the Culpra community) is used throughout this essay; however, it should be noted that the spelling varies depending on the familial and therefore regional connections of individuals. 5 Barry Pearce, personal communication with author (2015). 6 These indicate past Aboriginal presence and engagement with Country: midden sites contain the detritus of life (in this case mostly discarded mussel shells), scarred trees are those where bark has been removed for the making of canoes and coolamons (elegantly curved carrying vessels). 7 Janet McGaw & Anoma Pieris, Assembling the Centre: Architecture for Indigenous Cultures (Routledge, 2015). 8 Sophia Pearce, Kanyitas Way: A Reflection on Yarning, Masters Thesis (Charles Sturt University, 2013). Pearce notes that, “Indigenous knowledge is embedded within the belief system for many Aboriginal people, their views and experience of the world…According to Grenier (1998), “Indigenous knowledge (IK) is stored in peoples’ memories and activities and is expressed in stories and songs, folklore, proverbs, dances, myths, cultural values, beliefs rituals, community laws, local language and taxonomy, agricultural practices, equipment, materials, plant species and animal breeds. IK is shared and communicated orally, by specific example, and through culture. Indigenous forms of communication and organization are vital to local-level decision-making processes and to the preservation and, development, and spread of IK.” 9 Deborah Bird Rose, Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness (Australian Heritage Commission, 1996), 7.