Craig Jones’ Post

RREDD at Kowanyama conducting a component of a complex mediation process with Andrew Clarkson.

Aurukun mid Kaap or wet season. The right hand picture speaks to the idea of country over the idea of wilderness. The Yuk Kich ( Melaleuca viridiflora) bark is used to cook fish mince - shark or ray ( especially the fat) cooked inside the bark ( often with garlic, chilli, ginger) and eaten with the shark liver ( dried or cooked with the “mince”). I’m actually here working with community on #mediation not cooking. Though the hybrid fish mince recipe does provide a metaphor for the Thaa’ pant/mediation hybridised/co-created process that works to address conflict.

I Heading out from Kowanyama. I appreciate the opportunity to work with community on complex mediation matters. #RREDD #mediation #adr The green frog is Litoria caerulea. I’ll get back to you on the language name.

Plastic (mostly) collected on 3 separate days this week at home beach at Point Lookout. #straddie #microplastic I understand that degraded plastic can’t be recycled so all of this is headed to the bin. However, potentially the colourful plastic could be converted to visual art or perhaps following in Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s guide, using the plastic as a reference to create poetry. In her case about nature and her people ( The Quandamooka People of Minjerribah - where the plastic was collected). In this case about humans and nature. The alignment of the plastic tragedy and the colonialism tragedy, which was a key theme of her poetry, seem obvious. ( she was published as Kath Walker see “We are going” published in 1964 by Jacaranda Press). Also I found this little excerpt from the internet: “In 1974 Oodgeroo was on a British Airways flight that was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Two people on board were shot. During that time Oodgeroo wrote poetry on an airline sickbag!” https://lnkd.in/g5cQYda2

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in collaboration with western science finding answers to current water problems. I wonder if here in Australia we might take a non-adverarial approach to that intersection. Instead of a competition for a seat at the table rather there is no table but mutual problems that require innovative approaches to derive mutually beneficial solutions ( human and environment). This proposition is not an argument against the use of rights based adversarial approaches. My view is that the no table and seat collaboration is also an opportunity to face our mutual future. The poetics of listening is not simply about having ears, it is as difficult as the adversarial politics of the seat and table process.

At Aurukun in the late dry. There is some burning happening in the swamp. In town we will be engaged in #mediation work. One aspect of the work is collaboration with various stakeholders that deliver services in Aurukun. Conflict affects people in the community along with the effectiveness of service delivery.