There has been a range of lengthy examinations of the history of the discovery of the cause of beri- beri and particularly its relationship with western or ‘scientific medicine’ in Japan, and the failure of that country’s medical elite to adopt clearly prophylactic measures. However, there has been negligible consideration of the history of beri-beri in Australia, despite it having been a regulated ‘contagious disease’ over many decades. There has also been very little consideration given to the work of the small number of Japanese doctors who came to Australia more than a century ago when beri-beri was a major affliction in Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The basic contention of this paper is that, even though, or perhaps because, it was largely confined to persons of Asian background, beri-beri was, and remained for a long period, a far more significant affliction in Australia than is generally acknowledged. Moreover, its local history is inevitably interwoven with what occurred in Japan, and the way it was dealt with in Australia reflects a similar intransigence among those who had or perceived a vested interest, or who simply could not escape the attitudes of their own upbringing and education.
In this paper I position myself in a modest mediator role, supporting the entity of ‘Yolŋu language’ in bringing to life a Yolŋu ontology of language in academia. As a matter of urgency, in reconceptualising ‘language’ in curriculum development in academia, my work is to theorise the Yolŋu ontology of language under the category of philology: philo- (love) and -logy (word). Modern philology is a rather vague category for studying language, but I claim philology can respect and take Yolŋu language ontology seriously. I am arguing for supporting a revival of this way knowing language in academia. It can certainly help me and many academics to stop committing ourselves to having the world of things ‘out there’, and the words to name them ‘over here’. It can help me to study words uttered and written and their meanings in situ, which I argue is one aspect of care for Yolŋu concepts in the academy. This task is not mine alone, yet pursued in a collective epistemic space within academia, where politicoepistemic diplomacy is conducted.
How cities and the people who live in them may devise adaptive and transformative responses appropriate to their needs, causal relations and risks from anthropogenic climate change is no easy undertaking. Prioritising a social science approach, I concentrate on questions of human- nature relations and all of society governance for developing distinctive and locally relevant climate change planning and action. Focusing on the city of Darwin in Northern Australia, my qualitative, transdisciplinary doctorate explores the less well understood area of the perspectives and experiences of community volunteer groups working at the intersection of the city’s eco-social entanglements and governance processes. Contrasting three different perspectives to understanding a city, I use the case of ‘the Milkwood trees’ to explore how they intersect in a locally meaningful way. I argue that these volunteers are vital knowledge makers in reconnecting those eco-social entanglements that are rendered invisible in different perspectives. Throughout this essay I reflect on my knowing’s and learning’s on being and doing transdisciplinary research.
Capturing the sense of community in an immigrant context is an arduous task, as it is visually absent, yet ideologically present. Consequently, it is represented in text as absence presence and its meaning is concealed unless the focus is community. Thus, the researcher’s challenge is not only collecting data but also reflecting and writing upon that data. In other words, it is about constructing our analysis, in terms of locating, experiencing, and narrating the meaning of ‘community’ in an anthropological pursuit. Based on two years of fieldwork with Sri Lankan Sinhalese transnational immigrants in Darwin Australia, the paper argues that the sense of community is an experiential entity for the researcher and informants. Also, it is imagined and fragmented yet subject to reproduction.
We are an intercultural research team studying intercultural communication. This article shares some of the research practices we used in a doctoral research project conducted collaboratively at all stages from planning to dissemination. We discuss how räl-manapanmirr djäma (collaborative work) supports researchers to connect and succeed in developing deeper, shared understandings of intercultural communication. We have been working to find a research pathway that connects partners from different knowledge systems while recognising, celebrating and learning from our differences.
