#Kaurna country

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: Gawler Place, Kaurna Country, Adelaide, 1958. Photo by FGK Bahra

[furmity]

Another stunning example of the strange painted quality of my phone camera, but the sundews are flowering! (Drosera whittakeri)

Went to the dam and saw that the turtles are waking up. Even saw two eastern longnecks (bioregionally native) among the Macquarie river turtles (in these parts, abandoned pets). In summer this dam's surface is covered with them.

A koala in the tree that always has a koala in it, and another down the track. Small mob of western grey kangaroos.

A limping Australian raven around the car, alone but they flew well and were finding things to eat. Breathtakingly glossy- purple in the sun.

Kaurna Yerta.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

At Adelaide, Mary Thomas wrote of Kaurna people,

The greatest mischief they have . . . is a custom of burning the grass during the hot weather . . . Their fires on the hills are quite awful. We have frequently seen fires this summer which have reached for twenty or thirty miles in circumference, for they light them at distances so that they will enclose a large space,²⁶

and in 1844 George French Angas similarly described the Adelaide Hills:

They consist of tall primeval trees of a kind of eucalyptus, their erect and massive trunks blackened, in many places as high as fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, by the tremendous fires that sweep through these forests, and continue to blaze and roll along, day and night for many miles, in one continuous chain of fire. These conflagrations usually take place during the dry heats of summer, and frequently at night; the hills, when viewed from Adelaide, present a singular and almost terrific appearance; being covered with long streaks of flame, so that one might fancy them a range of volcanoes.²⁷

In such mature forest, fire 'fifteen or twenty feet from the ground' (4.5 to 6 metres) would not be thought big today, and in those same hills three years before Angas a reporter observed,

though the fire has evidently ranged fiercely in many places, yet it never seems to attack anything but the grass and the leaves of the lower bushes, leaving the trees unscathed, the larger ones being seldom found hollow and blackened as are those on the plains below.²⁸

At Albany in 1830, Scott Nind noted, 'The violence of the fire is frequently very great, and extends over many miles of country; but this is generally guarded against by their burning it in consecutive portions.'²⁹

26. Mary Thomas, The Diaries and Letters of Mary Thomas (1836-1866), ed. Evan Kyffin Thomas, WK Thomas & Co., Adelaide, 1925, p. 123, c/- Tom Gara.

27. George French Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vol. 1, Reed, Wellington, NZ, [1847] 1968, p. 43, c/- Tom Gara.

28. South Australian Register, 27 Mar 1841, p. 4, c/- Tom Gara.

29. Scott Nind, 'Description of the Natives of King George's Sound (Sean River Colony) and Adjoining Country', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 1, 1830-31, p. 28.

"Country: Future Fire, Future Farming" - Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe

[frankeneglected]

CALLING ALL AUSTRALIANS

this info-graphic by adelaide_sisters_association on instagram provides examples of actions you can do to promote our voices against the genocide in Gaza

[alt text provided for above images; the infographic calls specifically for citizens residing on Kaurna Country (adelaide) but these actions are for all australians to contribute to]

sign petition EN5628 - requesting the ending of governmental support to israel and demanding ceasefire on Palestine

(petition EN5628 closes 13 December 2023 11:29 PM Australian Eastern Central Time; signature count as of posting this on 12 December: 30, 182)

sign petition EN5622 - demands ceasefire on Palestine and an end to israeli occupation

(petition EN5622 closes 13 December 2023 11:29 PM Australian Eastern Central Time; signature count as of posting on 12 December: 162, 217)

email your local MP - a search engine will find your representation and a template is generated; writing your own words allows you to express your own voice and helps avoid dismissal as spam

(emailing your local MP does not have a closure date but it is encouraged to do as soon as possible)

your voice counts. expressing dissent of your government's actions and inactions is vital.

from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free 🇵🇸🍉

[justforbooks]

Lowitja O’Donoghue was told as a child she would never make anything of her life, but the Yankunytjatjara leader went on to change the course of history through her advocacy for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Taken from her mother and her culture at two years old as one of the stolen generations, she said the harsh discipline she experienced growing up in a loveless mission home ignited her appetite for social justice and equality for First Nations communities.

The life of O’Donoghue, who has died on Kaurna Country in South Australia aged 91, was shaped by the prejudice she experienced as a woman born between two cultures – Aboriginal and white – and by her refusal to be defined by it. Her formidable capacity for activism was triggered by her battle to become the first Aboriginal nurse at the Royal Adelaide hospital, despite the matron repeatedly telling her to “go nurse your own people in Alice Springs”.

At the time, O’Donoghue had no idea where she came from, but she knew it was not Alice Springs/Mparntwe.

From a working life that began as a 16-year-old servant, O’Donoghue went on to become the first Aboriginal person named a Companion of the Order of Australia, the first to address the UN general assembly and the first chair of the now defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, overseeing its most successful years.

She was a lead negotiator alongside then prime minister Paul Keating in the drafting of the Native Title Act that arose from the high court’s 1992 Mabo decision. It was Keating who shortlisted O’Donoghue for a vice-regal position, one that ultimately went to Sir William Deane.

In his 2018 oration named in her honour, Noel Pearson called O’Donoghue “our greatest leader of the modern era”.

“Resolute, scolding, warm and generous – courageous, steely, gracious and fair. She held the hardest leadership brief in the nation and performed it bravely and with distinction,” he said of her guidance during native title negotiations.

O’Donoghue was the fifth child of Lily, a Yankunytjatjara woman, and Tom O’Donoghue, an Irish stockman. She was born on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands at Granite Downs station in South Australia in 1932. While never certain of her birthdate, O’Donoghue celebrated it on 1 August, the date given to her by white missionaries.

“All I know about my birth is that I was actually born in the bush, like all Aboriginal children at those times. It was a traditional birth attended by the grandmothers as, of course, is the traditional way. And the only other thing I know, of course, is that I never had a birth certificate. And, of course, I still don’t have a birth certificate,” she told the Australian Biography project in 1994.

She never knew her father, and when she was two, she and two of her sisters were taken from their mother by missionaries acting on behalf of the Aborigines Protection Board. The girls were sent to live at what was known as the Colebrook Home for Half-Caste Children, where they were forbidden to speak their language or ask about the whereabouts of their parents. O’Donoghue did not see or hear from her mother again for more than 30 years. In a 2011 interview , she recalled the grief of her childhood, saying she did not remember ever “being kissed or touched or loved or anything like that”.

In a 2006 interview, she said: “I didn’t like it of course, particularly when we were told our culture was of the devil. And because I heard that too many times I became quite rebellious because I was always asking the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from?”

O’Donoghue attended Unley general technical high school, but at 16 was sent to Victor Harbour as a servant for a large family. Two years later, she began basic nursing training before attempting to transfer to the Royal Adelaide hospital to continue her education. When the matron refused her because she was Aboriginal, O’Donoghue took her battle to the state premier and anyone else in government who would listen to her case.

“I’d resolved that one of the fights was to actually open the door for Aboriginal women to take up the nursing profession, and also for those young men to get into apprenticeships,” she said in 1994.

O’Donoghue was eventually accepted and spent 10 years at the hospital, including as a charge nurse. She travelled to India to nurse, an experience that honed her determination to secure the rights of Indigenous peoples in her later senior leadership positions within various agencies of Aboriginal affairs and the public service.

While nursing at Coober Pedy in the late 1960s, O’Donoghue was recognised by a group of Aboriginal people. From them, she learned that her birth name was Lowitja, and that her mother was a heartbroken woman living in appalling conditions in Oodnadatta. When mother and daughter eventually reunited, there was tension and a language barrier. Her biographer, Stuart Rintoul, writes that she would later talk of their reunion as a lesson in the “limitlessness of hope and the strength of patience”.

O’Donoghue told the Australian Biography project that reconnecting with her Aboriginal family brought “new meaning and a whole new dimension” to her life, moving her to devote herself entirely to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In 1979, O’Donoghue married Gordon Smart, a hospital orderly she had met in the late 1960s. He died in 1991. The couple did not have children together, as O’Donoghue chose to dedicate her life to her work.

O’Donoghue was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1977, invested as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1983 and made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1999. In 1984, she was named Australian of the Year and in 2005 a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great, a papal award. She holds multiple honorary doctorates and fellowships and was patron of the Lowitja Institute.

🔔 Lowitja O’Donoghue, advocate for Aboriginal Australians: born 1932; died on 4 February 2024 aged 91.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[positivelyqueer]

Assumption: you have queer themed deco up in your room💚

That would be very correct- it’s mostly art prints and some wonderful originals by locals from Naam and Kaurna country. <3

[caitlinlidae]

🌠 November Photo Dump🌠 These photo dumps are the most consistent thing in my life. I don't know what that says about me 🤷 ENJOY!!! . . . #selfies #frog #ceramics #shrek #salemthecat #bathroomselfie (at Kaurna Country) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClmU5hNB4gNgu42WjMl-aOyStreUaOinufmvkM0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[grub-s]

some sick orchids today in kaurna country

[bumblebeeappletree]

We meet a biologist who has spent his life observing the littlest living things; from pollen in the air to the moss under our feet.

Dr Andrew Thornhill is a research botanist at the State Herbarium of South Australia curating the bryophyte collection, including mosses, liverworts and hornworts. He also teaches plant identification at the University of Adelaide which is within walking distance via the botanic gardens.

Early in life, Dr Andrew knew he wanted to study living things and enrolled in university straight out of high school. Unfortunately, one week before studies began, Andrew discovered he had a rare form of cancer in his knee and was met with an option to amputate or go through a world-first surgery. He opted for the surgery, which was successful, though “it meant that I couldn’t run anymore, and I had to take care of my leg. It didn’t help that I was in a car accident five years after chemo. I broke both my legs and every bone in my foot, so I had to recover again.”

Despite having to defer his studies, Dr Andrew continued with a focus on plants instead of zoology, admitting that “it might be too hard to chase animals.” With moss being so close to the ground Andrew makes light of the ironies and compensations of his work. “When they made me the moss curator, it was kind of ironic because you have to get down on your knees. I don’t have one of the knees to get down on, so I get a camera or magnifying glass... and just lay on my stomach to look really closely.”

The collection holds 30,000 dry specimens which are being digitised into a database. Assisting Dr Andrew is environmental biology student Bonnie Newman who discovered four migrated species of bryophytes previously unseen in Adelaide via the iNaturalist app. Bonnie has volunteered with the herbarium collection for over two years and says, “Andrew has a really relaxed way of doing things, you know, cracking jokes and making people feel comfortable.” As well as the current collection, they also collect new specimens from the field which are pressed in tissue to extract moisture, frozen to get rid of pests then labelled and stored in the herbarium.

The First Creek wetland in Adelaide botanic gardens is a popular place to find moss, hornwort and liverwort. Andrew says it’s the combination of shade and consistent moisture that allows the mosses to survive even through dry Adelaide summers. “When they do (dry out), they sit there, and they don’t completely die. When it rains, they can pop up quickly and show themselves again.” Andrew points out a leafy liverwort which grows on rocks and logs, slowly decomposing them into soil, and performing a vital role in the ecosystem. “Mosses are doing a job, extracting nutrients, holding the soil together, slowly breaking something down. Without them, we wouldn’t have the soil that other plants can use.”

Moss outreach is also an important part of Andrew’s work, with trivia nights whimsically titled Mosstermind, art exhibitions and Moss Appreciation Society pages on social media all aiming to encourage more young scientists to the field of these mini but mighty plants.

Dr Andrew says, “Mosses and their close relatives, liverworts and hornworts, are what we think are the earliest of land-plant groups. They're the plants that came out of the water and started colonising land and forming oxygen. Mosses form part of the ecosystem. You might not see them, but they're sitting there underneath the soil holding it together in many places. It's only when it rains... they unfurl their leaves, put their little chlorophyll out, turn green and then you’ll spot them everywhere.”

You can contribute to science by uploading photos of your local bryophytes to the iNaturalist website.

Featured Plants:

SPARSE FERN MOSS - Thuidiopsis sparsa

MARBLE SCREW MOSS - Syntrichia papillosa

LEAFY LIVERWORT - Chiloscyphus sp.

Filmed on Kaurna Country | Adelaide, SA

[eatliveescape]

Illuminate Adelaide: A Festival of Art, Light, and Music

Held annually on Kaurna Country, Illuminate Adelaide is the city’s brightest celebration of art, light, music, and technology. Over three weeks in July, this spectacular event transforms Adelaide into a vibrant playground, bringing late nights, bright lights, and big adventures to all ages. With a mix of free and ticketed events, there’s something to suit every taste and budget. Where to…

[muladona]

about me!!

hello my name is tash, (they/them).

i live on unceded Kaurna country — otherwise known as Adelaide.

i am currently completing my plant biology degree, but i have more of an interest in insects at this point (unfort my uni doesn’t offer any entomology courses at the undergrad level…), but i’ve had the pleasure and luck to work on some summer placements and internships with Dr. Katja Hogendoorn and doing some research on native bees in SA.

this video above is me measuring all the bees we captured (over 200!!)

i love native bees, but honestly since beginning my bug learning journey, all bugs are interesting to me now.

other than that, i also have a graphic arts and graphic design background and used to be freelance illustrator (not anymore tho!)

wanting to meet other people who are bug freaks hehe

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: Stobie poles along Gulfview Road, Christies Beach, Kaurna Country, Adelaide, circa 1966 (photographer unknown). In mid July 1924, Adelaide engineer James Cyril Stobie applied for a patent for a termite-proof telegraph pole suitable for the Adelaide region

[furmity]

Antipodean Europaganism: part 1

In the southern hemisphere, deosil is anti- clockwise. The Left Hand Path is the Right. The moon grows to fullness like 🌘🌕🌒, and his face appears upside- down to a northern perspective.

The seasons are opposite, but it's not necessarily so simple as turning the sabbat dates around. The seasons mean different things, this continent has its own cycles. What do European reconstructed traditions mean here?

Like myself, my practices aren't really their origin anymore: they're Australian. Reconstruction of a historical paganism only goes so far when Australia is nothing like northwestern Europe. I've not yet firmly settled on an annual calendar, the mystery continues to be revealed.

I live in a "Mediterranean" climate, it feels very cold to me today at 12°C. It will not snow here but it rains and rains: everything is green. Frogs are singing in the creeks which dry away in early summer. Some native plants are blossoming. My garden's orange tree is laden and ripe. Mushrooms are everywhere. The serpents are in their holes, yes, but the land cannot be said to be "sleeping" through the winter.

Really it's a time of plenty... or, it's one spoke of a fertile wheel that never really has a fallow time. Something flowers all year, something fruits, something breeds. All the native trees are ever-green. I live in an agricultural part of the country, and something is always coming into season.

Summer is the harsh time. The Australian sun is utterly, utterly fierce. All this green grass will dry and die, the Bush will burn explosively with all the eucalyptus oil. While winter meant the threat of starvation to my ancestors, here in summer we may run out of water, we may lose everything in the fire... And yet! the ash fertilises the soil, certain native plants need the flames to seed....

So, how to celebrate this turning wheel? Back-to- front and inside- out? The sun will be reborn in a few days time, I will keep a vigil to guard the house from the howling terrors of midwinter... but are they really more frightening than the ravages of midsummer? The phrase "kind as summer" doesn't mean anything to me.

It can seem so silly to see snowflake ornaments up in our summer Christmas, but I take it in the same spirit as burning candles and Yule logs on the longest night: we call back the cold to see us out of the heat. But what is the mythic seasonal drama that plays out around me?

To what degree are my gods omnipresent in the world? Known by many names by many cultures into Proto Indo- European prehistory: the sky, the thunder, the sea, the fertile land and rich harvest- they are here, but the gods of dark, snowy winters are not. I don't have a god for the bake of an Australian summer, the burning bushland... only the sun herself. She rises, she falls, I miss her full glory now but cower away from it when she returns to full strength.

It all hinges on what I think the gods really are, what celebrating the seasons is supposed to really mean. It depends how brave I am in creating a practice entirely my own and specific to this place.

ALL of this is getting the easy musings out of the way. Much of it is cut from a draft I struggle and struggle with because it's the hardest question of all: Tarndanya is the Country of the Red Kangaroo, but what can I respectfully do with that information?

What does any of this mean on stolen, colonised land? What do the real owners think of me seeing Green Twins, skogsrå and trolls in their country? What does the genius loci make of the likes of me, crying out for songs and ceremonies it will never see again? What can I do at all except say at the opening of every ritual:

I stand on Kaurna land, acknowledging their continued relationship with the lands and waters. I honour the Elders past, present, and emerging. I remember the unceded sovereignty of this Country, and I say sorry.

The land IS the Dreaming, and such knowledge as remains is not for me at all.

[workersbushtelegraph]

No Fear No Favour: Solidarity with Antoinette Lattouf

Welcome to Rally and Acknowledgement of Country. I am your MC. My name is Nick Chesterfield – I am an Insurgent Journalist, and journalist safety trainer, and MEAA Members for Palestine organiser: I am Kaurna Nunga, Kulin Nations and Cornish man, Insurgent Journalist and MEAA Members for Palestine organiser; Housekeeping. This is a peaceful protest, we are not going to block access to the ABC –…

[brionygalliganprojects]

Installation view, Conjuring i already forgot, FELTspace, Kaurna Country, 2024. Photo: Thomas McCammon. Butterfly net, London plane tree, Dad's silk shirt, cotton, polyester ribbon, steel hand rail fixings, and foreground: Disequilibrium, hand-dyed cotton and bedsheets, silk, cotton and aluminium curtain rail fixings, 2024. Photo: Thomas McCammon.

[jobtendr]

(31) Postdoc and Academic Positions at Flinders University in Australia

(31) Postdoc and Academic Positions at Flinders University in Australia Flinders University in Australia invites application for vacant (31) Postdoc and Academic Positions   Flinders University in Australia invites application for vacant Postdoctoral and Academic Positions, a globally focused, locally engaged institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching, learning and research Senior Lecturer in Social Work locationsBedford Park / Kaurna Country | Academic Level C | Closes 17 Dec 2023time typeFull time JR0000009129 Continuing Teaching and Research Academic Director – University Department of Rural Health (NT) locationsCentre for Remote Health, Alice Springs | Academic Level D | Closes 07 Jan 2024time typeFull time JR0000009371 Fixed Term (Fixed Term) Teaching Read the full article