Teaching Environmental Scientists From Country: Integral Wisdom for a New Australia

Teaching From Country (TFC) took as one of its primary tasks the following challenge: “What is a helpful conceptual framing of issues involved in our work that is valid in Yolŋu terms and supports translation into academic contexts?” This paper explores one dimension of this: how can Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK) be “translated” so as to better prepare dominant culture environmental scientists to collaborate with Indigenous people in caring for land and country? IEK has been a topic of considerable interest among conservation scientists – and other scholars for decades (e.g., Dwyer, 1994; Posey, 1999; Rappaport, 1984). Realizing its potential has proved elusive. I would like to propose that greater insight can be derived from understanding IEK’s context within an integral wisdom tradition, as well as its traditional pedagogy of initiation. TFC has proven that it has much to contribute to cross cultural understanding, and I believe it can assist in addressing this specific question.