Yanama budyari gumada, walk with good spirit as method: Co-creating local environmental stewards on/with/as Darug Ngurra

Abstract

In this chapter, we reflect on ways in which we yanama budyari gumada, “walk with good spirit”, at Yarramundi, a Darug place at the edge of western Sydney’s intense residential development. Though heavily colonised, Darug Ngurra, Darug Country is, and always has been, a place of immense connection and meaning to its Aboriginal custodians, the Darug people. Sharing our learning through yarning and dance circles, we invite the reader to listen in to our personal reflections on what it means to try to embody, model, and advocate intercultural more-than-human environmental stewardship. Documenting how Darug Ngurra actively shapes research methods as she teaches, we share what we encounter through these more-than-human relationships, the joyful ways we co-emerge together as well as the challenges and mistakes made. In “walking our dreaming together now” (Uncle Lex Dadd) we are trying to listen carefully to Darug Ngurra, to begin to heal ourselves and Country.