Wayilwan women caring for Country: dynamic knowledges, decolonising historical methodologies, and colonial explorer journals

This article presents research from an ongoing collaborative project between two women—an Aboriginal woman and senior Wayilwan cultural knowledge holder, and an academic of European descent—that aims to closely and critically re-read Australian colonial and later historical sources for Wayilwan women’s knowledge of Country and community. In this article, we specifically focus on the journals of colonial explorers John Oxley, Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell, who travelled through Wayilwan Country in the early to mid-19th century. We begin by outlining our collaborative methodology, contextualising Wayilwan Country and introducing these journals. We then examine the journals in terms of four interlinked Wayilwan women’s knowledges: river knowledge, fire knowledge, grain and yam knowledge, and care of children and the elderly. In undertaking this research, we aim to contribute to decolonising methods and methodologies, address harmful disengagements with Aboriginal women’s practices, and respectfully carry forward Wayilwan women’s knowledge.