Yarns—cultural sharing

At Nguluway DesignInc, one of our initiatives is to enhance cultural literacy and awareness through our organisation, industry and society. We are starting this journey with our own people. Managing Director Craig Kerslake is running a cultural literacy and awareness programme, sharing his personal journey as a Wiradjuri man.

Yarning is a traditional Aboriginal practice of coming together in small groups which nurtures respectful relationships and communication by creating a forum that supports equity and inclusion.

As Tyson Yunkaporta, Senior Research Fellow at Deakin Research and Sand Talk Author, explains ‘It’s better to have a broad pool of potential authority or leadership and allow temporary hierarchies to spark and emerge in the right moments.’

To create the qualities of a yarn we need to consider scale—how many people and voices, spatial arrangement—a circle is best, and an activity—to activate two parts of the brain at the same time, creating a deeper cognitive way of thinking. This also encourages an informal, relaxed and safe space for communication.

At Nguluway DesignInc, we chose to do a paper-folding activity while yarning about important topics such as belonging, cultural protocols and designing from Country.

Craig shares stories of being Aboriginal

Yarning is a traditional Aboriginal practice of coming together in small groups which nurtures respectful relationships and communication by creating a forum that supports equity and inclusion.

If your company is interested in having a yarn to understand more deeply about designing from Country and how we can bring about change in the built environment - please get in touch with Craig Kerslake.