Brook Garru Andrew, Indigenous Centred Perspectives  Conversation with Marcia Langton (pre-recorded) and online Q&A

Dr Brook Garru Andrew and Professor Marcia Langton reflect on the water relationships between the Yolŋu (Aboriginal people in northern Australia) and the Makasar (Fishermen from Sulawesi) which predate European colonialism. Brook is spearheading the BLAK C.O.R.E* initiative in the Museums & Collections department of the University of Melbourne. With a mandate to reimagine and reset how Indigenous cultures and communities are positioned and held within museum, institutional and public spaces, BLAK C.O.R.E is driven by principles of murungidyal** (healing) and yindyamarra gunhanha** (ongoing respect). The initiative aims to sustain, support and embed First Nations/Indigenous ways of being where deep listening and reciprocity are required for new futures to succeed in these spaces.     * BLAK: "I just wanted to take the 'C' out of 'black'”. Artist Destiny Deacon “developed the term 'Blak' as part of a symbolic but potent strategy of reclaiming colonialist language to create means of self-definition and expression" wrote curators Clare Williamson and Hetti Perkins in the exhibition catalogue for Blakness; Blak City Culture, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 1994.    * C.O.R.E.: Circle of Radical Energy    ** Wiradjuri words from the Aboriginal nation of western New South Wales. Brook Andrew’s matrilineal kinship group.  

Brook Garru Andrew is an artist and writer of Wiradjuri and Celtic descent and the Director of Reimagining Museums & Collections at the University of Melbourne.    Professor Marcia Langton is a Yiman scholar, geographer and anthropologist who is an expert in Indigenous arts and politics. She is the Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.