Conscious Cities

Deep time perspectives of place

Forum hosted as part of the Conscious Cities Festival

Monday 25th October 2021 MOD – University of South Australia, North Terrace Adelaide

Australia is made up of over 350 different First Nations each with unique languages and ways of living, learning and being. For tens of thousands of years protocols have existed for First Nations Peoples to welcome visitors to their Country. Traditionally, visitors requested permission to enter and when granted would be welcomed in a ceremony, offering them safe passage and protection of their spiritual being during the journey. It was expected that visitors would respect the protocols and rules of the landowner group while on Country.

Jack Buckskin provided a Welcome to Kaurna Country, wishing all Conscious Cities Festival 2021 participants a safe journey as they enjoy the gatherings.

Adelaide is built on an ancient place called Tarntanya. Nestled alongside a prehistoric mountain belt that formed over 500 million years ago, on a delta in a protected gulf that meets the Southern Ocean. aurna People have ingeniously adapted and evolved wisdom, values and sophisticated ways of being here over tens of thousands of years to live sustainably, in this place, among many millions of other species thriving in this unique landscape.

Since Adelaide was established as a colony 185 years ago, much has been lost, destroyed, and disrupted; lives, landscapes, waterways, biodiversity, culture and knowledge.

In this session we will learn from some of the enduring Kaurna culture and wisdom as valuable insight into how we now might cultivate the conditions conducive to a resilient, flourishing future for all living beings in this wondrous part of the world. We looked into some of the stories of the past through our region’s fossil records and we begin to imagine better futures, in our custodial role as the ancestors of tomorrow with Kaurna Elder Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien’s invitation to walk together; “Nata ngadlu kumangka yara kumaninthi (Now we together two become one).

This forum is a journey into deep time – past, present, and future.

Hosted by Trish Hansen – Founder of Urban Mind Studio

Speakers

Jack Buckskin Cultural Leader and Language Ambassador

Prof Chris Daniels; Urban Ecologist and Chair of Green Adelaide

Dr Aaron Camens: Paleontologist at Flinders University

Dr Kristin Alford; Futurist and Director MOD