Learning from Mountains on Country: Embracing International Mountain Day
Details:
3:10 – 4:00 pm
5th of December
Room: 1N-206-207
Barry Golding
Barry Golding recently completed a book about six mountains in central Victoria as a State Library Victoria Fellow in 2023, called Six peaks speak: Unsettling legacies in southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country. The book, researched ‘ground up’ from a multidisciplinary perspective has highlighted that many mountains are not as they seem, and that we have a lot to learn about the importance of mountains to First Nations peoples as well as their ongoing legacies in order to ensure our future survival. In the process, Barry was surprised to find that International Mountain Day, created by the United Nations two decades ago, celebrated each year on 11 December, had seldom been fully embraced in Australia. Barry has come up with a plan to acknowledge and celebrate the day in 2024 on Country with the Dja Dja Wurrung traditional owners in collaboration with a number of other community organisations including Outdoors Victoria. His bigger vision is for the day to be adopted and celebrated in other parts of Australia in 2025 and beyond on Country in collaboration with other First Nations peoples. This presentation is about Barry’s passion for mountains, what he has discovered along the way and a sharing, his ways of researching and working with First Peoples on Country as well as his vision for mountains and their many legacies to be better known and understood in Australia.
About the Presenter
Honorary Professor Golding AM is associated with Federation University in Ballarat, Australia. In 2023 Barry undertook a State Library Victoria Creative Fellowship for a forthcoming 2024 book, Six Peaks Speak: Unsettling legacies in southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country. He self-describes as a ground-up, community-oriented, polymathic, place-based story teller. His degrees span four disciplines: geology, arts, environmental sciences and education. Barry has researched and published internationally in vocational, adult and community learning including about community Men’s Sheds. Barry is an honorary Patron of the Australian Men’s Shed Association and former President of Adult Learning Australia.
