Welcome to the joint seminar by CEDAR and Várdduo where Mandy Yap from Australian National University will present her research on:
“Conceptions of Indigenous wellbeing and sustainability: Weaving Indigenous and other knowledge systems”
Mandy Yap
There is now widespread recognition that concepts such as wellbeing and sustainable development are multidimensional and contextually and culturally constructed. Despite this, the tendency has been to establish universal criteria and indicators for the measurement of wellbeing. One problem with such universal applications is that the different meanings and understandings of what constitutes wellbeing that are held by different peoples can be overlooked. This is particularly true for Indigenous peoples around the world where parameters of their wellbeing tend to be defined on their behalf.
The international community have much to learn from Indigenous peoples and communities who have long advocated for and practiced a way of relational living where human and non-human existence are intertwined. In a time when societies are re-imagining a way of existing and thriving where economic, social, and environmental concerns are indivisible against the challenges of recent times, these ways of living well provide an alternative pathway forward. This presentation/paper will describe the collaborative journeys of working with Indigenous communities, weaving together Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge systems, to explore conceptions and philosophies of wellbeing and sustainability in South Sulawesi and Broome, Australia.
Mandy Yap is Fellow at the Australian National University undertaking an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher project titled ‘The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Indigenous perspectives: Closing the knowledge and data gap’. She is committed to working with communities and individuals to develop indicators and measurement frameworks which give priority to their lived realities and perspectives on the ground. Specifically, this has involved working in partnership with Indigenous organisations and communities in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria to co-produce data and information fit for their purposes and needs. Before returning to CAEPR in 2019, she was employed at the Crawford School of Public Policy working on the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM), a gender sensitive measure of individual deprivation grounded in the experience of people living in poverty.
The seminar will take place in Fatmomakke, NBET floor 4.
Mandy Yap from Australian National University