Space, Place and Body - research group

Researchers in our group use the concepts of space, place and body as a framework for addressing significant issues of our time. This conceptual lens foregrounds the mutual constitution of bodies, identities, spaces and places in relation to regional and age-specific identities; climate change, water, sustainable places and new postcolonial identities, informed by Indigenous place practices. These areas of critical contemporary concern are focal points of our research, which unfolds across core themes. These are:

• Postcolonial knowledges, bodies and places
• Literacies and place
• Spatial practices of education
• Gender, body, identity
• Everyday spaces and places
• Place-based education
• Sustainable community development
• Creative and alternative approaches to research

Indigenous rock paintings at Mt Gundabooka

At Mt Gundabooka there’s pictures of the fish traps, a round sort of stone pebbles drawing and fish swimming into it. There’s men with spears and a woman giving birth, there’s animals and handprints. That’s how I realised the connections between places; seein’ that little fish trap painting on Mt Gundabooka was amazing. (Lorina Barker, Muruwarri)

From ‘Transforming water pedagogies’ in Landscapes and Learning: place studies for a global world