Feeling and Hearing Country as Research Method

Abstract

This paper explains Feeling and Hearing Country as an Australian Indigenous practice whereby water is life, Country is responsive, and Elders generate wisdom for a communicative order of things. The authors ask, as a society of Indigenous people and those no longer Indigenous to place, can we walk together in the task of collectively healing Country? The research method uses experiential, creative, propositional, and practical ways of knowing and being in and with local places. Evidence may take many forms based upon engagement with an animate, sentient world. The research method can generate new meanings, implications and insights, and regenerate practical knowledge of Country. As an Indigenous tradition, Feeling and Hearing Country can enable the regeneration of healing life energies. It can help freshen up stories, knowledges, and help link ancestral wisdom to the present while co-creating healthy futures. Feeling and Hearing Country can enliven the human spirit, landscapes, and all beings via a participative, creative process that is helpful for the planet at this climate time, when many humans have forgotten their place in the world. As a research method, Feeling and Hearing Country can support the unlearning of epistemological errors for reinstating vitality in things.