Termin

29.10.2026 | College of Fellows

Country is Alive: Indigenous Australian Philosophy

New Horizons Lecture

Abstract: 
Indigenous Australian Philosophy is emerging as a field that translates some concepts and practices from Indigenous Australia to form a branch of Australian Philosophy, a field that is itself ephemeral. The forms of knowledge that have accumulated over many thousands of years on the continent have mostly been translated into the disciplines of anthropology, history, archaeology, linguistics and some sciences. The door to the philosophy department has, for the most part, remained closed. Young Indigenous scholars are finding ways to open the field up to the knowledge their ancestors bequeathed to them, articulating the concepts and practices found there with critical analysis, with ecological management, with totemism and animism, and with pragmatics. Articulating Indigenous Australian Philosophy in English, in writing, in seminar rooms, has its challenges. But there is no doubt something new will emerge that is relevant to the Australian, and perhaps more global, context.