Intercultural Communication Workshop

About 

Intercultural communication is pivotal in connecting people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This three-hour workshop explores concepts and processes that support intercultural communication and facilitate the co-construction of shared understandings. The workshop will be co-presented by Yolŋu (First Nations Australian people from North-East Arnhem Land) and Balanda (non-Indigenous) researchers. Workshop participants will be supported to reflect on, discuss and strengthen their intercultural communication processes with respect for the diversity within and between communities.

This workshop is based on collaborative research conducted in Galiwin’ku, North-East Arnhem Land, as part of Emily Armstrong’s PhD. We will share our research findings about key processes which families and service providers recognised and enacted to achieve an intercultural connection - a “flow that comes when we’re talking”. We represent these processes with metaphors drawn from the water’s journey through Yolŋu lands to meet the sea. Workshop participants will explore multi-media resources and an educational process we co-created through participatory action research. Our research demonstrated that the educational process and multi-media resources are accessible, relevant and resonant for both Yolŋu and Balanda communicators.

This workshop will encourage communicators to consider deeper ways of thinking about intercultural connections and interactions. There will be opportunities for interactive group discussions about applying intercultural communication concepts to research and practice. The research team hope that our collaborative work will support the facilitation of intercultural communication processes in ways that honour participants’ voices, challenge inaccessible systems, resonate with diverse audiences, and support strong, ongoing relationships.

Details

This workshop is recommended for researchers, practitioners, and anyone interested in increasing their knowledge and skills in intercultural collaboration. It could benefit those working in remote community contexts and service provision fields.

Facilitators

Emily Armstrong	Emily Armstrong is a non-Indigenous researcher whose family, descended from convicts and white settlers, has been in Australia for eight generations. Emily works in collaborative intercultural partnerships with Yolŋu researchers. The research shared in this article is part of her doctoral research. Emily is a speech pathologist with experience across a wide range of services in health, disability, education and higher education fields.
Dorothy Gapany	Dorothy Gapany is a Gupapuyŋu–Daygurrgurr woman, great-grandmother and retired bilingual educator from Galiwin'ku. A Yolŋu educator since the 1980s, Gapany is passionate about children’s bilingual education in Djamburrpuyŋu and English languages. She is experienced in respecting both Yolŋu and Balanda ways of learning.
Yenhu Gaylene Gurruwiwi	Yenhu Gaylene Gurruwiwi is a Yolŋu woman from the Gaḻpu clan. She works as a senior leader at Galiwin’ku Women’s Space and as a Yolŋu research consultant with the Northern Institute, CDU. Yenhu lives in Galiwin’ku with her children, granddaughter, and close extended family.

SOLD OUT 

Registration has now closed. 

Thank you for your interest in participating. If you would like to be added to a waiting list or contacted about future workshops, please email emily.armstrong@cdu.edu.au.