Indigenous ecological knowledge systems – Exploring sensory narratives

Abstract

There is little attention focused on how Indigenous Australian people engage with the environment and how other ecologists can include this interdisciplinary approach into their practice. Despite many ecologists' genuine desire to work across cultural fields together, there are some notable differences between Western and Indigenous ideologies. One of these principles involves an embodied process that allows us as Indigenous people to connect, analyse, predict and measure changes in Country. This cultural tool of knowing is bounded in place-based narratives that are sensory-driven to filter and guide our field experiences. This article serves as an essential resource for scientists and conservationists to rethink their connections to place through immersive bodily experiences as a meaningful apparatus to increase public environmental stewardship. After all, is it not our desire to inspire ecological thinking within a public domain?.