Knowledge Intersections: Exploring the Research of Central Australia - Research Symposium Proceedings

On Thursday 18th May 2017 the Desert Peoples Centre campus of Batchelor Institute hosted the inaugural Knowledge Intersections Research Symposium. This event came about out of a desire to showcase and share the excellent research work being done across the central Australian region. It was also an opportunity to explore the ‘Knowledge Intersections’ to be found across and between this work. It was intentionally held in harmony with the NT Writer’s festival which took place from the 18th to 21st May, 2017.

The theme of the NT Writers’ Festival was ‘Crossings | Iwerre-Atherre’. This theme, and the conceptual work behind it, was carefully developed by the NT Writers’ Festival organisers. The language in the title came from local Arrernte people who interpreted crossings as iwerre-atherre, meaning two roads meeting, neither blocking nor erasing the other; two-way learning or travelling together. The theme ‘Knowledge Intersections’ was adopted for the research symposium to encourage local researchers to share how the research work they are doing reflects these thematic ideas. Specifically presenters at the symposium were challenged to reflect on these two questions;
• How can/does research help create intersections or meeting points for knowledge systems, without one blocking or erasing the other?
• How does two-way learning happen in research and how does it help us to travel together?

Researchers from across the central Australian region presented on diverse topics including Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, the boarding school experience, collaborative publishing projects, literature, resilience, decolonising education policies and practices, narratives, poetry and visual arts.