The Instability of Truth: Aspects of Developing a Specific Indigenous Methodology on Experimental Practice-Led Research

This visual essay aims to incisively intervene in the colonial construction of “Aboriginality,” which continues to have a significant bearing on the nature of self-identification for Indigenous people in Australia. It elaborates culturally appropriate and attenuated models for representing a singular Gurindji-specific history, and the contemporary experience for those culturally affiliated with the Gurindji people—whether on customary lands or part of a dispossessed sub(altern) group within one’s own country. Through a body of experimental moving-image/video/film/sound and body/performance, shown in conjunction with multimedia, including installation, it probes a dynamic and fluid methodology to involve family and community members in a practice-led research from an Indigenous auto-ethnographic, performative immersive, insider/outsider standpoint.