Welcome to our brand new series – Let’s Talk Black Culture – with our incredible new host: Nunukal, Ngugi, and Goenpul (Quandamooka) woman, poet, MC, cultural facilitator, model & public speaker, Elizabeth Walker.
To introduce this new series, Elizabeth takes us across the bay to her country, Quandamooka country, to sit in the sand and talk culture, care, and kinship with her first teacher, her Dad, Joshua Walker. In this beautiful, intergenerational cultural dialogue, Joshua and Elizabeth introduce us to the kinship systems that long pre-date colonial occupation and invasion on this continent. They reflect on the ways that kinship systems orient Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across so-called australia towards systems of governance premised on mutual accountability, responsibility, care, and trust. They talk through some of the ingenious ways that First Nations people sustain and maintain kinship systems despite the ongoing attempt of colonial regimes to erase, disrupt, and dismantle them. And they offer critical insights into the role that these kinship systems can offer in addressing the crises of the present moment – from the moral panic about “youth crime,” to the housing crisis, and the disastrous impacts of climate change.
All in all, it’s a huge first episode for this brilliant new series. So pour yourself a cuppa and settle in as Elizabeth & Joshua share a conversation bracketed by the sounds of Country and culture: from the waves lapping at the sands, to the occasional raucous intervention by nearby crows, distant splashes from shorebirds hunting fish in the shallows, and the gentle hum of the breeze through casuarinas.