SESSION 1

The following are recommendations only. No pressure at all.

Reflection Prompts:

• Be Fascinated with yourself as the subject of your research. What comes up for you after our first session? What questions, observations and experiences are emerging? What are you curious about? What does and doesn’t make sense?

• Triangulating between the three areas in Fieldwork, how do you understand your relationship with your field of inheritance, the land beneath your feet and your imprint in this world?

• As you are exposed to the ideas and cultural-spiritual-relational framing in Fieldwork, what do you recognise / remember / recall / re-discover / awaken within yourself?

Recommended Documentation:

You can document your growth in many ways. Some suggestions include -

• Journal each day and jot down what you notice in the areas of Land / Country - Legacy / Ancestry and Country / Land. Write poetically and generously and curiously and openly.

• Each day walk outside and engage with the land in some small way, you can write a tiny note to yourself, or bring a leaf or pebble or pick up a piece of rubbish. You can grow a physical collection of treasures or simply write a word each day to remind you of your interaction.

• Make a list of people whose legacy you are carrying forward. Artists, revolutionaries, parents, elders, activists, strategists, writers etc…

Recommended Reading / Watching / Engaging with

• Rewatch our session following the link emailed to you with the recording.

• Watch ABLAZE, the award-winning documentary by my colleague, mentor and family Tiriki Onus, by renting or purchasing on any platform. This documentary gives insight into some of the strength, resistance and incredible stories that come from the land beneath my feet - The Kulin Nations.

• Listen to Natalie Diaz and David Naimon on Between the Covers. Both PART 1 and PART 2 are a deep dive into Indigenous strength, complexity and artistic practice.

• I highly recommend reading INFLAMED by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel.

SESSION 2

The following are recommendations only. If you notice resistance, document that and be fascinated about where that comes from and why? All information is valuable to bring back to the group.

Reflection Prompts:

ACKNOWELDGEMENT IS PRAYER .DOC

click above to download

Recommended Documentation:

BUILD AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT POEM .DOC

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Recommended Reading / Watching / Engaging with

• Rewatch our session following the link emailed to you with the recording.

• The Ground for Inclusion: Diversity and interdependence Mark Fairfield is one of my greatest influences as a psychotherapist looking to move beyond the confines of individualism. This article draws together anthropology, neuroscience and relational theory to make a case for radical inclusion. I read this (as I read many things) as a yearning for an Indigenous reality.

• This episode of criminal with Sister Helen Prejean was a lesson in humanity for me “do your work for the authentic reason of the work itself and not because you seek the fruits of it. You don't seek any extraneous kind of rewards. As I understand it, it means you do what you do because it's the right thing. And it's a moral imperative. It's written in your bones”

SESSION 3

The following are recommendations only. Engage as deeply as you like for your own joy, curiosity and yearning.

Reflection Prompts:

Using the illustration below as a prompt, practice thinking through different realities of time and notice any changes in how you feel, think or hold yourself. What is supportive? Is this easy? Is it confusing? Do different time realities help solve different types of relational problems?

Praxis:

As discussed in our last session, you can use this excel spread sheet to document your praxis. You can also be as creative and adaptive as you like to fit the way your life moves and your brain works. These tools and resources need to respond to your world, if they don’t work there’s nothing wrong with you the tools just don’t work right now! You can simply collect pictures or scribbles or small poems each day. You could create a daily artwork that you revisit. You can choreograph a short dance that you visit daily so you can practice and see how it feels and changes. You can stick a post-it note on your mirror, you can ask yourself three questions every time you turn on a tap or while you’re doing your teeth.

Be creative, there are no gold stars given. The gold star is the feeling of dignity that will grow as you grow your agency and clarity over your narrative, purpose and your relational reality.

BUILDING A FIELDWORK PRAXIS RITUAL.EXE

click above to download

Recommended Reading / Watching / Engaging with

• Rewatch our session following the link emailed to you with the recording.

• Read the essay Poetry as a Field - Jake Skeets. Then re-read.

• This animation narrated by the incredible Uncle Jack Charles was made by The Healing Foundation. This is heavy to watch and makes me cry every time I see it, but I feel like it gives a strength-based insight into our collective work, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous in any settler colony. Like Uncle says “but this is not where our story ends”. This animation reminds me that time is long and deep and moving ever forward.

SESSION 6

Relational Tools to Play with >

SESSION 8