Description

This project presents a unique on-Country approach to research with young Aboriginal people seeking to understand what a world worth living in means to them as individuals and for the communities they live in.

The approach included poetry composition and photography as media that revealed their Aboriginal youth voices, cultural sensitivities, identity and agency.

For these young Aboriginal people, sitting on Country with sand sifting through their fingers, their words and images emerged as powerful resources for connecting to culture and to self as their Aboriginal identities flourished despite previously being demeaned by racism, ignorance, injustice and inequity.

The poetry and photographs produced by these young Aboriginal males demonstrate the kind of resilience needed for these Aboriginal youth to take their place in the world – one that they too see as worth living in.

One of the young men, Jimmy, wrote the poem "Sand through my fingers". In the accompanying video, Wiradyuri man and animator Bernard Higgins brings life to this poem.

Book chapter

This project is described in more detail in Chapter 6, titled The Sand Through My Fingers: Finding Aboriginal Cultural Voice, Identity and Agency on Country , in the book called Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All, Volume 1: Current Practices of Social Justice, Sustainability and Wellbeing.

The author of this chapter is Christine Edwards-Groves (Australian Catholic University, Australia).

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