Sam Burch, Kristy-Lee Burch and Oliver Vodeb: Seeing Country and Radical Design
Aboriginal artist and activist Kristy-Lee Burch and writer, teacher, and activist Sam Burch join Oliver Vodeb to discuss Aboriginal practices of “Seeing Country” and Radical Design. “Country” for Aboriginal people is a deep spiritual and cultural relationship with the land, waters, skies, and all living things—a source of identity, belonging, law, and responsibility.
The conversation centres around the chapter Seeing Country: Decolonization, Timeless Intimacies and an Escape from the Tyranny of the Dead Man’s Vision, which Sam Burch contributed to the Radical Intimacies book. It outlines some of the key ideas behind the practice of Seeing Country. As a practice grounded in lived experience, its radical potential for design lies in its specific relationality with the world—rooted in a deep appreciation of, and respect for, all living things.
The discussion touches on cultural positions formed in response to the ongoing colonisation of so-called Australia, offering relational frameworks that are deeply relevant to radical design. We hear about the meaning of “fire,” the spiritual nature of initiation rituals, the still ongoing forced removal of children, ideas of what it means to be in “proper relationship” with the world, the damage the extraction of natural resources from Aboriginal land does and also how universities are places of colonization.
At one point, Oliver asks: “Is everything coming from the West bad?” Of course, it isn’t—but as Sam Burch notes, we need to better understand how different knowledge systems can “talk to each other.” Reflecting on capitalism through an Aboriginal lens, Kristy-Lee remarks that even Marx could have benefited from decolonial thinking.
This podcast is a beautiful journey into knowledge and radical relationality through dialogue.
Sam Burch and Kristy-Lee Burch are both engaged in activist and educational work and have collaborated closely and meaningfully with Memefest since 2013.
If you want to read the whole chapter in Radical Intimacies, Designing Non-Extractive Relationalities, find more about the book: here.
*Dingo Woman site
* Poster Blow up Rio Tinto, a favorite poster of Oliver Vodeb designed by Melbourne based James Vinciguerra
*Memefest Radical Intimacies Festival badge. Design by Rok Klemenčič
PODCAST CREDITS:
Hosted by: Oliver Vodeb/ Memefest. The podcast is a collaboration between Memefest and Intellect publishers.
Photo 1: Sam Burch and Kristy-Lee Horswood
Photo 2 + 3 : Oliver Vodeb
Music: Thanks to Bait for their song Property Law. Two best friends meeting seasonally in bucolic surrounds to generate improvised music. Property Law recognises the Indigenous peoples of the world's relationship to land. As in, "we don't own the land. The land owns us." Each of us is only passing through. Empires, Epochs come & go, but the spirit of the land persists.
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