Journeying Ginninderra: Attending Country
Journeying Ginninderra: Attending Country was a deeply relational, Ngunnawal-led exploration of Ginninderra Creek, guided by Custodians Wally Bell and Karen Denny. Unlike previous Catchment Studio initiatives, this program intentionally focused on nurturing deeper connections with fewer participants, supporting meaningful engagement, cultural learning, and reflective practice.
Our Approach
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This program brought together seven selected participants from diverse backgrounds, including the arts, ecology, community engagement, and environmental science. Participants embarked on immersive on-Country walks, supported by online sessions including the transformative Decolonise Your Mind (DYM) training and Ngunnawal language workshops.
We embraced Indigenous pedagogical practices such as:
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Attending Country: Slowing down, listening, and responding respectfully to Ginninderra Creek and its ecosystems.
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Storytelling and Re-storying: Using narrative and creative practice to deepen ecological and cultural understanding.
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Yarning Circles: Fostering safe, reflective spaces for challenging conversations about power, privilege, and positionality.
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Embodied Learning: Engaging sensory practices like water-listening, sketching, mud burials to build embodied connection to Country.
What We Learned
Going deeper instead of broader allowed for transformative personal growth and shifts in how participants relate to Country. Participants discovered new ways of seeing water not just as a resource but as kin and teacher, resulting in a significant shift toward relational accountability and reciprocity.
Everyday talk and informal dialogue emerged unexpectedly as powerful tools, facilitating profound reflections on positionality, colonial impacts, and relational ethics.
Creative Outcomes
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A short documentary film with following Ginninderra from the three head waters to two to one with a soundscapes captured from the creek.
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Community gatherings at Murrumbidgee and Soli’s Farm, celebrating collective learning and relational practice.
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Mud burial Rituals on Murrumbidgee
Next ​Steps
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Catchment Studio is passing the baton, empowering participants to continue nurturing these relationships and initiatives. An online, participant-led platform will soon launch to support ongoing collaboration, dialogue, and community-driven projects. Our commitment remains to amplify Indigenous leadership, support relational learning, and foster collective responsibility to Country.
Stay tuned as these water stories continue to unfold.
