White Skin, Brown Soil: A white woman’s search for identity, culture, and belonging on stolen lands

This research responds to the eventual (and very necessary) process of dismantling and unlearning the white Australian culture in favour of pluriversal, decolonial, and relational ecologies. However, the ways in which we go about collectively re-imagining this future is unclear. This research documents my own personal journey to explore and integrate my Celtic ancestry so that it can be a source of wisdom and inspiration for assisting myself and other white people for co-creating regenerative and pluralistic futures alongside indigenous and culturally diverse migrants on the lands of so-called Australia. This study is contextualised through a brief reflection on an abstracted chronology leading up to and including the colonisation of Australia and the subsequent creation of a modern ‘White’Australian monoculture, made possible through the assimilation of culturally diverse migrants, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This research looks for opportunities which moves beyond linear notions of time and colonial notions of place and geographical boundaries. It does this by highlighting the learnings and knowledge that can be found in the form of ancient seasonal calendars which reflect the rhythms and cycles of life, and the way in which ancient rituals and practices framed through a bioregional lens can help foster rootedness and authentic connection to place. Ultimately, this study provides a different view on decoloniality which not only offers the perspective of someone descended from the ‘oppressor’ class but seeks to establish connections with people from different cultures and thus furthering the relationship we have as humankind