WDA 2024 is a very different approach to an international wildlife health conference. The event is guided by a diverse and experienced organising team and founded on decades of scholarship. Much of this scholarship is unfamiliar to wildlife health professionals, researchers, practitioners and students. That is why WDA 2024 is not just a conference, it is a journey over a year through what we think are key concepts towards emerging democratic, diverse and decolonised wildlife health spaces. By ‘decolonised’ we mean that those spaces are not shaped by a cultural hierarchy in which Western cultures are implicitly framed as more ‘developed’ or superior than others.
Our shared journey began on 1 December 2023, exactly one year before our One Event Two Ways conference in Canberra, Australia, and online. We started by coming together as an organising team to strengthen our own relationships, and to embody RESPECT, LISTEN and REFLECT. These three actions are the contract that we all enter into while participating in WDA 2024. Our launch event was about respecting First Nations peoples, culture and knowledges – recognising that these knowledges are the product of tens of thousands of years of direct observation of Country, enabling First Nations to thrive on and with Country. We took the time to listen to Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Wiradjuri Elder, as she shared the meaning of yindyamarra (going slow, honouring, respecting) and ngurambang (Country). We then came to Wiradjuri Country (Wagga Wagga, Australia) to start WDA 2024 with a smoking ceremony by Wiradjuri man Luke Wighton. We listened to Luke’s understanding of yindyamarra and ngurambang.
“Country is everything to us. It’s more than a word, Country. Country is everything. It’s where we get our identity from… it all comes from Country: our dances, our stories, our songs, and our language, our food, all comes from ngurambang… We hold country at a very, very high value because we think of it, well it is our mother, like a mother that nurtures you, gives you everything you need to sustain a healthy life.” – Luke Wighton, Wiradjuri
We then reflected – what might our community of wildlife health, conservation and One Health professionals learn from these timeless Wiradjuri concepts?
“Giz ged [Torres Strait Islander concept of Country] is the place of origin, it is where your heart calls back to, it’s a way of knowing, being and doing that is completely connected to space without necessarily having to be connected to that place. So, this idea of being able to carry these concepts into different places and spaces is also really profoundly important… It is around understanding ourselves as completely and utterly connected to different places and spaces, where we feel the full expression of ourselves being realised.” – Professor Kerry Arabena, Meriam descendant, WDA 2024 organising team
“In order for us to take our messages, which are extremely important, and share them with a greater audience, we have to connect with Country, not only with all of our members, and take that time to respect and listen to their individual stories above and beyond just a scientific paper… and then be able to pull this together and get our message out to the public or people that we want to influence.” – Dr Peri Wolff, WDA Executive Manager, WDA 2024 organising team
Listen to RESPECT, the launch event for WDA 2024, here.
The journey continues…
Our journey of listening and reflecting continues. On 28 March 6pm (EDT), Professor Albert Dzur explains how others have brought democracy into their professions and institutions. Associate Professor Rohan Deb Roy will then focus on the relationship between colonialism and science in the history of malarial science in South Asia on 9th April 11am (BST). Our journey then visits the relationship between colonialism and conservation, shows us how to share ideas and knowledge through storytelling and the arts, introduces us to Indigenous research methodologies, awakens us to the First Nations concept of Country across three mind-blowing webinars, and finally invites us to connect with Country in preparation for One Event Two Ways – our parallel On Country meeting in Canberra, Australia, and Off Country meeting online from 1-6 December 2024.
We invite you to join us on this journey. Sign up for regular updates and registration links here.
