Lumen Winter 2023 - Flipbook - Page 24
Living and breathing
sustainability
Sustaining Aboriginal culture at the University of Adelaide
By Eleanor Danenberg
Language
What do you think when you hear the words
‘Aboriginal’ and ‘sustainability’ together?
Do you think of plants, or maybe animals?
The perception that Aboriginal peoples’
knowledge is limited to flora and fauna is a
hangover from a settled, colonised world,
says Professor Steve Larkin, Pro ViceChancellor Indigenous Engagement at the
University of Adelaide.
University of Adelaide researchers
have contributed to a new website,
a comprehensive one-stop-shop for
everything about the Kaurna language, the
original language of the Adelaide Plains. The
Kaurna Warra website (www.kaurnawarra.
org.au) is the new project of Kaurna Warra
Pintyanthi (KWP) which has been hosted
by the University since 2004, and its sister
organisation Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi
(KWK). The KWP team, Associate
Professor Rob Amery, and PhD candidates
Susie Greenwood and Jasmin Morley, also
worked on the first ever English to Kaurna
dictionary, Kaurna Warrapiipa, which was
published in 2022.
“To inadvertently limit Indigenous
knowledge to things like folklore because
they’re meant to be this hunting gathering
class of people: they are rather outdated
notions of what people think Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people know. There’s
an element of power in this: the power of
who decides who knows more, or what
people are deemed to know.”
Every day, across every faculty, experts
from the University of Adelaide are pushing
the boundaries of traditional notions of
sustainability. The following are just a few
examples of members of our community
working to sustain Aboriginal music,
language, and health, all of which will in
turn sustain Aboriginal culture.
Music
Researchers have received a $1 million
grant from the Australian Research
Council’s Discovery Indigenous scheme for
a project that will strengthen knowledge,
understanding and application of the
intricate tuning systems that underpin
traditional Indigenous musical practices.
Members of the research team from the
University include Dr Luke Dollman from
the Elder Conservatorium of Music, Mr
Grayson Rotumah from the Centre for
Aboriginal Studies in Music, and
Ms Eleanor McCall from the Mobile
Language Team.
Right: Cedric Varcoe, Narungga/Ramindjeri/
Ngarrindjeri people, born 1984, Kaurna
Wirltu Tidna , 2021, acrylic on canvas
(University of Adelaide Library Special
Collections, A.VA.2022.1037.1)
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
As Uncle Rodney (Rod) O’Brien, respected
Kaurna Elder and Cultural Advisor at the
University of Adelaide says: “The Kaurna
language revival is vital to the survival of the
Kaurna culture in the future. Without our
language we lose our essential ingredient, I
believe… it defines us and distinguishes us
from others.”
Health
Director of the University’s Indigenous Oral
Health Unit and Yamatji woman Ms Joanne
Hedges is the chief investigator on a study
about human papilloma virus (HPV) throat
cancers among Indigenous Australians. The
initial results found throat cancers caused
by HPV are 15 times more prevalent in
Indigenous Australians than young nonIndigenous Australians. The National Health
and Medical Research Council has provided
$3.1 million in funding so the worldleading study can continue for the next
five years, with the research’s ultimate goal
being the early detection of HPV-related
oropharyngeal cancer before it
becomes fatal.
“Sustainability is much
broader than just key
things to do to sustain
a healthy physical
environment in society.
We need to sustain a
social, political, moral
commitment to achieving
equity as a priority;
it’s something that the
University breathes, it’s
got to live its values.”
Health through education
Mr Kym Thomas, a Nukunu Elder, is
a researcher with the Adelaide Rural
Clinical School which coordinates training
