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Paper short abstract

By embracing Indigenous “relational methodologies” that speak to Indigenous understandings of enduring associations between the past, present and future we can foreground critical and actionable processes that help researchers better engage and understand Indigenous knowledge systems.

Paper long abstract

The ways in which Indigenous communicate and relate to the overall world are Ancient and intergenerational. Since time immemorial Indigenous communities have interacted with their environments and surroundings in intricate and powerful ways. However, as anthropologists how can we not only continue to cultivate our knowledge to be responsive and respectful to such interactions, but provide real-time commitment to ongoing decolonization and Indigenization of anthropological theory, method and practice? How can we underpin Indigenous ontologies and experience-based realities that help move beyond standard and essentialized notions of what is important or significant to communities? By embracing “relational methodologies” that speak to Indigenous understandings of enduring associations between the past, present and future we can foreground critical and actionable processes that help researchers better engage and understand Indigenous knowledge systems.

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Paper short abstract

The ocean embodies complex, sensory and elemental cultural expressions which are often absent in the blue economy. By advancing food heritage knowledge within anthropological inquiry there is the potential to revalorise intangible cultural knowledge for ocean management education and sustainability.

Paper long abstract

The ocean embodies meaning, memory and unique cultural expressions which plays out in an intertwined human-nature relationship. From the Namib Desert to the tropical rainforests of Mozambique, the coastline of Southern Africa is a unique melting pot (or potjie pot) of cultures and coastal identities. As such, Southern Africa cannot be defined as a singular culture as the communities in the region have been influenced by forces of social change, such as migration, immigration and colonialism, which has rendered these coastal communities into a mixture of ethnicities and identities. These all contribute to the unique and sensory knowledge production within the blue economy. However, the complexity of these experiences are often absent in the blue economy. I posit that these experiences are not linear, but rather they are sensory, elemental, complex and intricate and that by advancing food heritage knowledge within anthropological inquiry there is the potential to revalorise intangible cultural knowledge for ocean sustainability and ocean management education. By making use of an explorative and qualitative approach along the coast from Namibia to Mozambique, data was collected to understand the lived and sensory experiences of food heritage. While the fieldwork is still on going, the research found participants re-evaluating their daily meals through flame (fire), salt (earth), drying (wind), and the ocean (water). I recommend considering these as crucial for the blue economy agenda, ocean accounting management, and ocean management education. That is, being inclusive of human-nature relationships that considers taste for overall sustainability.

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Paper short abstract

Bishop Short consecrated Christ Church North Adelaide in 1849 and founded The University of Adelaide in 1874. The work of Mary Douglas (Purity and Danger), Edwards Deming (Out of the Crisis) and Claude Shannon (A mathematical theory of communication) are under the long shadow of Bishop Short.

Paper long abstract

Mary Douglas summarises the way in which Anthropolgy had its origins in the pulpit and the ill informed break that placed religion ahead of magic and science ahead of religion. Edwards Deming provided three axioms that never fail for successful management -- constancy of purpose, respect for systems and reliance upon profound knowledge. Claude Shannon linked binary mathematics to the value of information in all its forms -- electrical, literal, musical etc. Harvey Whitehouse posits "Ritual brought us to where we are, can ritual save us?"

The institutions set in place by Bishop Short ( a church, a parish school, Adelaide's St Peter's College and The University of Adelaide) by 1915 had informed a Nobel Prize winner (Sir Lawrence Bragg) and Elton Mayo whose studies of workers in Chicago at the Hawthorne Works of Western Electric Company informed Edwards Deming. Edwards Deming is attributed with the survival and success of the Japanese economy and the resurgence of national pride that was able to generate after the devastation of World War Two.

It is all too easy for the world of machines, transport, food, energy and communication to be taken for granted without deeply ingrained knowledge and appreciation of how those vitalities are generated and maintained. Churches for centuries have been curators of that knowledge and appreciation and in a world of narrowly focused specialisation the need for that role persits towards an all encompassing profound knowledge base in life-long learning.