Jindaola: A creation story

A protector of many Knowledges, Jindaola the Goanna, walks from place to place helping people know ‘proper way’. He speaks of protocol, the sacred and the special, and he teaches the appropriate practices we must perform to maintain the continuation of these. Jindaola is found represented within several significant Dreaming stories across Yuin Country; and in each of these represents the carrying of Knowledge. The Dreaming can be seen as an embodiment of Aboriginal creation that gives meaning to everything...

Use of this name was agreed upon through dialogue, consultations, and times of learning and sharing with Yuin Elders and Knowledge Holders. This process has since positioned the name Jindaola as a reconciling gift and promise for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples to walk together on this journey.

As an educational development grants program, Jindaola was designed through a partnership between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff in the Academic Development team. Thus, development and ongoing delivery of this program is a continual negotiation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal worldviews and perspectives. Jindaola brings together participants (interdisciplinary, faculty-based teams), academic developers and Aboriginal communities in a collaborative journey situated in Country for the purposes of learning, knowledge exchange, and knowledge co-creation. With the overarching objective of curriculum reconciliation, Jindaola provides a way modelled on traditional Aboriginal systems for maintaining knowledge integrity, whereby knowledge-based relationships are established between disciplinary knowledges and the relevant Aboriginal knowledges, and are grounded in the principles of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity.