Troubling Spring: What ‘place-noticing’ pedagogies emerge when we notice the world through the Kulin* seasons?
Shared by CATHERINE HAMM
As I take my morning walk, I notice that Sky Country has changed; no longer a dark grey sunrise but now a brilliant orange! Creek and Park are showing abundance as plants and animals respond to the change from Gulig [Orchid] to Porneet [Tadpole] season (Melbourne Museum, 2020). Barwung (Magpie) is nesting and guards her babies closely. Learning with/from Barwung requires attending to local Aboriginal environmental worldviews that focus on relationships (not exclusively human ones), relationality and circular ways of knowing (Martin, 2016). Place-noticing pedagogies require deep, ongoing connections that generate opportunities to learn with place, not just about places. How can thinking with local Kulin perspectives in the context of my walk, support me to learn with place? How might noticing what calls me into connection during my walk generate ways to understand seasons beyond the arbitrary, inverted allocations assigned from the Northern Hemisphere?
*First Nations Territory
References
Martin (2016) Voices & Visions: Aboriginal Early Childhood education in Australia. New South Wales: Pademelon Press.
Museums Victoria (2020) Forest Secrets. Retrieved from https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/resources/forest-secrets/