On Gumbaynggirr Country (mid-north coast, NSW), garlaany (pippies) hold and communicate knowledge of maintaining respectful relationships with/as Country as a lived reality. In my Country-led learning with/as Gumbaynggirr and non-Gumbaynggirr research collaboration, Yandaarra, garlaany’s ongoing presence offers a Country-led practice of relating with/as Country. In this presentation, I share a story of a time Aunty Shaa Smith and Uncle Bud Marshall who guide Yandaarra, invited me to dig garlaany with Country and on what is also stolen land. Digging garlaany - doing it in the proper way guided by Country - offers a Country-led practice of coming into deeper Gumbaynggirr relationships. I centre this Gumbaynggirr Country-led practice to work methodologically in attending to Gumbaynggirr relationships in the here and now, as a research process.
In sharing this research story, relating with garlaany is offered both metaphorically and as a lived reality; a Gumbaynggirr-led way of relating with/as Country, on stolen land. Garlaany are always there, their knowledge bringing more-than-humans into deeper connections in and as place, in and as time. But since invasion, ongoing colonisation has meant that some connections have been separated from Gumbaynggirr Country and its people. In digging garlaany, I come into this story of Gumbaynggirr Country and people under the guidance of Custodians. I reflect on how garlaany participate in a Gumbaynggirr-led methodology of connecting with and learning from Country. I share in ways that speak deeply to continuing relationships that shape my learning in more-than-human, Country-led ways. Digging my feet into the sand, watching garlaany reveal themselves in rhythm with changing tides, I respond to their ongoing presences as knowledgable, helping me to better understand and enact the political and moral obligations of my learning. So that right now, in Country's context and stolen land, my Country-led learning comes through story, Country, and garlaany.