Journal | Lagoonscapes
Monographic journal issue | 2 | 1 | 2022
Research Article | Yolngu Country as a Multidimensional Tangle of Relations
Yolngu Country as a Multidimensional Tangle of Relations
How ‘Everything is Linked to One Another’
Abstract
This paper explores how Australian Indigenous people express their mutual life‑giving bonds with other‑than‑humans such as animals, plants, natural features, and land in terms of kinship relationships. I will describe an ‘ontology of connectivity’ and a ‘mutuality of being’ among living beings in terms of reciprocal responsibility, interdependence, cooperation and care. In reference to my ethnographic research in Northeast Arnhem Land, I insist on the priority of relating, and on the affective nature of multispecies relationships, and illustrate how these are celebrated, maintained and reactivated through ceremonial songs, as well as new forms of music.
Submitted: March 14, 2022 | Accepted: May 20, 2022 | Published July 7, 2022 | Language: en
Keywords Australian Indigenous country • Yolngu people • Northeast Arnhem Land • North Australia • Totemism • Multispecies kinship • Ontology of connectivity
Copyright © 2022 Franca Tamisari. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2022/01/005
