Keynote for the Australian Association of Environmental Education by Professor Anne Poelina and Dr Emily Poelina-Hunter

On Tuesday 5th August, Aunty Anne and Emily did a dual keynote address together for the AAEE Biennial conference, with the title “Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer: A Nyikina Perspective.

The presentation used the case study of Emily’s research on her personal totem, wiliyanoo (freshwater mussel) to describe how she is learning from Aunty Anne, wiliyanoo, The Mardoowarra River, her father, Petrus Poelina-Hunter, and Country more broadly about the responsibilities that come with totemic relationships, and how significant the freshwater mussel is in Nyikina culture. The Q&A after the keynote further deepened the audience’s understanding of place-based, on-Country learning from Elders to younger family members, and the interconnections between humans and non-humans in a Nyikina worldview. Click here to open in a new tab.