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Kaytetye plants and animals: weaving music, kinship and country in central Australian Ethnobiology

Tracks
Mossman Ballroom
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Speaker

Professor Myfany Turpin
Professor
University of Sydney

Kaytetye plants and animals: weaving music, kinship and country in central Australian Ethnobiology

ISE Congress 2026 Abstract

Across central Australia, Aboriginal socio-religious knowledge and relationships between biota (including humans) is underpinned by a particular kinship system where different plants, animals, places—as well as ceremonial songs— relate to people through four broad kin categories, corresponding to a person’s four grandparents (among other kin) (Koch 2013, Turner 2010). Building on our work on Kaytetye ceremonial songs and places grounded in this socio-religious system, our project (ARC DP DP220100241) has been creating a Kaytetye ethnobiology book that integrates such knowledge with more conventional knowledge of Indigenous ethnobiology documentations, such as the use of biota for foods, medicines, tools and the like. In this paper we present on why this knowledge is crucial to the book and how it is being organised to represent the Kaytetye worldview and to best facilitate learning

Biography

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