Privileging Australian Indigenous knowledge : Sweet potatoes, spiders, waterlilys and brick walls

Lilyology contributes to what Denzin and Lincoln refer to as a new and vibrant theorising space, and as such, it is an act of intellectual self-determination that develops new analyses and methodologies to decolonise the author, communities, and institutions that impact our daily lives. Indigenous Knowings are fundamentally different to Western Knowledges. Many Indigenous researchers/educators struggle in finding their place within the framework of Western Knowledge. At the same time, non-Indigenous researchers/educators are challenged to understand and contextualise Indigenous Knowings as ontologies and epistemologies in their own right. This book hypothesizes this difference by navigating a space of colliding trajectories urging forward the author and other Indigenous researchers/educators to pursue alternate ways to express, operate within, and find ways to play in this space. This book uses metaphor, story, and imaging to embody the author's own Knowing through the crafting of Lilyology with waterlilys, sweet potatoes, spiders, and brick walls. Thus it reclaims and repositions Indigenous Knowings as a path ahead that makes sustainable and good choices (Youngblood Henderson- 2000, 274).