Acting locally, thinking nationally: layering Indigenous ontology within wellbeing frameworks

Abstract

There are hundreds of sovereign nations covering the modern nation-state of Australia.1 Noting the inadequacy of many contemporary terms to encompass Indigenous ontology, Indigenous nations have long practised what is now being expressed as ‘wellbeing frameworks’ in many nation-states. Unlike the sentiment expressed in contemporary wellbeing frameworks, Country – the complex web of relationships between the human and other-than-human that underpins everything2 – and relationality are fundamental to Indigenous ‘wellbeing’. The philosophy of mabu liyan (good feeling), intrinsic to the Yawuru nation of North Western Australia, is only one example of Indigenous governance where Country-centred planning and relational wellbeing are ‘business as usual’. Layering elements that are critical to Indigenous expressions of wellbeing, specifically Country and relationality, when developing wellbeing frameworks would broaden and deepen contemporary approaches to wellbeing while accommodating differences at the local scale.