Australia, like all inhabited parts of the globe, has been profoundly shaped by Indigenous people’s care and management. This evening, explore the deep knowledge of place and nature that Indigenous culture holds in the form of story, science and practice, from cooling seasonal fires to subtle understandings of seasonality and time. How can such knowledge reconfigure our ideas about ‘science’? And how should we imagine our shared future in light of this deep past?

Michael-Shawn Fletcher

Speaker

Michael-Shawn Fletcher is a descendant of the Wiradjuri and a geographer interested in long-term human-environment interactions. His research group uses microfossils stored in sediments to understand how landscapes evolve through time. Michael’s recent research has a particular emphasis on how Indigenous burning has shaped the Australian landscape, and how Indigenous knowledge needs to be meaningfully incorporated into landscape management to tackle many of the environmental challenges we face today. He is director of research capability at the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, and the associate dean (Indigenous) and an associate professor in the faculty of science at the University of Melbourne.

Ros Bandt

Artist

Ros Bandt is an internationally acclaimed sound artist pioneering new forms of sonic art, site-specific ritual performance in ancient world heritage sites, environmental acoustic sensings and soundings, and creating audience interactive installations over the past four decades. She is an expert historical wind player and collaborates cross-culturally and internationally. She is published by Wergo, New Albion Records, EMI, Neuma Records and Move Records. Her commissions include works for the Paris Autumn Festival, the Animart festival in Greece, the Studio of Akoustiche Kunst, the German public broadcaster WDR Cologne and the Austrian public broadcaster ORF Vienna. In 2020, she was awarded the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.

Ros’s sounding spaces can be experienced on her official website.

Djirri Djirri

Artists

The Djirri Djirri ensemble is the only Wurundjeri female dance group. Djirri Djirri means Willy Wagtail in Woiwurrung, the language of Wurundjeri people, the Traditional Custodians of Narrm (Melbourne) and surrounds. Many of the group have danced since they were young children, while others have learnt as adults. Their dances are created to honour their Liwik (Ancestors), Kerr-up-non (Family), Biik (Country) and animals. They teach their dancers to also sing in Woiwurrung language, their Mother Tongue. Djirri Djirri represented Victoria at the 2018 Dance Rites competition and won the Rites of Passage Award, awarded to those who demonstrate the onflowing of knowledge to the next generation.

Brigid Hains

Host

Brigid Hains is the editorial director of Aeon Media. An environmental historian by training, she is driven by a deep curiosity about the natural and human worlds. The Sophia Club is a chance for Brigid to express her love of beauty and the arts and to share the heartfelt dimensions of her intellectual life.