First Nations peoples across the continent have been practising, enacting, embodying, preserving and transmitting their culture and cultural practices – including language, customs, ceremonies, technologies and more – since time immemorial, and continue to do so in the face of the ongoing settler colonial project.
In the 200+ years since the violent British invasion of the unceded First Nations lands now known as Australia, the resurgence, revival and revitalisation of culture has become not only a way to survive colonial occupation, but a critical method for enacting resistance, protest and transformative change. But what is resurgence, and how should it be understood?
Taking our lead from First Nations academics, creatives and others, we use the framing of resurgence to refer to the expansive, diverse and ongoing processes by which First Nations people reclaim, revitalise and re-engage with their ways of being, knowing and doing. This includes strengthening their relationships with each other and their places, and revitalising their languages, governance systems and cultural practices.
Practices such as storytelling, art, dance and music are just some of the elements of expression of First Nations culture. First Nations cultural practices also include what are sometimes referred to as ‘intangible’ heritage, including spiritual beliefs, kinship systems, customs, lore/law, history and traditions, negotiations, ceremonies and protocols, food practices, Traditional Knowledge sharing and transmission, land-based activities and environmental practices, governance systems, learning and speaking language, processes of cultural artefact making, contemporary artistic practice and more. These practices are rooted in place and thus differ between communities, nations and regions. In other words, there is not one way to ‘do’ culture.
Our intangible heritage is who we are, it defines us. With our way of life interrupted in the recent past, never has it been more important to come together to protect and share cultural knowledge and skills. This will allow us to connect with and re-imagine who we really are and where we are going into the future.
Daniel Clarke, Wotjobuluk / Gunditjmara / Ngarrindjeri
For a deep dive into understanding resurgence as a conceptual framework, as well as a glimpse into just some of the many extraordinary resurgent practices across the continent, explore our Resurgence Backgrounder Series:
This collective right of First Nations people to practise, develop, protect and revitalise their culture and cultural practices is inherent – this means it is inalienable, and cannot be transferred, surrendered or taken away. Whilst First Nations peoples rights to self-determination and to culture are not granted by states or legislation, they are articulated, recognised and enshrined in international law through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Articles 11–13 in particular speak to the rights of First Nations peoples to maintain, protect and develop their cultural traditions, customs and languages in their past, present and future manifestations.
Article 11 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalise their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature;
Article 12 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practise, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains;
Article 13 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalise, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures.
Despite the articulation of these rights to cultural and language resurgence and revitalisation in international law, a key aspect to understanding resurgence as both a conceptual framework and a practice is that it does not require permission from, acknowledgement or witnessing by the rest of Australia, and often happens outside the purview of government and international law. All over the world, First Nations and Indigenous peoples continue to engage in meaningful and creative resistance against colonial violence and find ways to reclaim and remain rooted in their land, cultural identities, languages, stories, knowledge and governance systems, practices and protocols. In this way, resurgence can be understood in part as the taking back of what colonial systems have long attempted to control, steal or erase.
…this is not just cultural activity. Speaking our traditional languages is an act of sovereignty; keeping culture strong is an act of defiance.
Professor Larissa Behrendt, Euahleyai / Gamillaroi
Resurgence does not ask permission in order to enact this reclaiming; rather, it re-centers and reinvigorates First Nations nationhood and cultural practice. Cultural resurgence is an expression of the inherent self-determination and sovereignty of First Nations peoples. Importantly, these resurgent activities and practices are also generative: in other words, they are not just refusals or rejections of the dominant settler state but active expressions of and investments for (and in) First Nations alternatives. As the settler state increasingly demonstrates its inability to deliver meaningful justice, restitution, or reconciliation to First Nations peoples and communities, resurgence represents First Nations-led and community-based practices that continually embody and deliver meaningful alternatives grounded in First Nations nationhood, place-based knowledge systems and cultural practices.
To stand in one’s power is not to ignore the violence visited upon us; it requires us to refuse their account of it, in which they deem it all of our making or imagining.
Professor Chelsea Watego, Mununjali Yugambeh and South Sea Islander
Languages reflect local landscapes. They have the same characteristics, shapes, sounds, rhythms and songs. Our languages, particularly our place names, encode and express knowledge of place – carrying histories, stories and environmental knowledge.
Language brings you into journey. Through time – connecting you to the Ancestors. Through place – when you sing the old songs – you begin to travel through Country, you go over mountains and down valleys and your pitch goes up and down. You hit a flat in the land and so does your tone. You move into the stream of the river and the sounds of your words begin to flow. Our languages are still being spoken by Country – by our trees, winds, waters, animal skin, Ancestors and spirits.
Gumbaynggirr, Dunghutti and Kulkalgal woman and Gumbaynggirr instructor Kaleesha Morris
First Nations culture and identity are deeply entwined with, and inseparable from, language. As such, a core element of cultural resurgence is the revival, renewal and resurgence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, and the ability of language to (re)connect people to their culture and Country. For many First Nations peoples, language is survival.
In Australia, there are over 250 distinct First Nations languages and more than 800 variations, each with multiple dialects. These languages exist on a continuum, ranging from those that are widely spoken and/or being the first language of children in some communities to those considered ‘sleeping’ due to a lack of fluent speakers. Prior to British colonisation, all of these distinct languages were strongly ‘awake’ and regularly spoken.
Language resurgence in particular shows us how First Nations sovereignty can be deeply rooted in and expressed through the ‘everyday’ – decisions and actions that are not only not reliant on the state but often invisible to it.
Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom SchoolAs we consider the implications of resurgence, we must ask ourselves:
