Luŋ'thun: Sand, saltwater, and collaborative attunements

Abstract

This audio-visual essay works with the epistemic imperatives of our research subject—the sands and saltwater of a small stretch of coastline in northern Australia. Orchestrating a series of sounds and images together with a gentle rhythm of text-based Yolŋu (human/Indigenous) elaboration, we seek to enable others to attune to a material dynamics of collaboration and co-creation made manifestly palpable in the kinetic zones of coastal life. Rather than either simply telling, or showing, we invite our ‘readers’ to enter into a slow process of attuning to the forms of sensuous instruction offered directly from the wäŋa (land, environment, Country). In this way we orientate towards research as a shared and emergent processes of becoming knowledgeable with more-than-human worlds. The result is a Yolŋu-led digital experiment in sovereign knowledge production: a modelling of a site-specific, participatory onto-epistemics intended to inspire others towards the possibilities of creative, relational modes of more-than-human research.