Decolonising through ReCountrying in teacher education

All we are is a story. A good story is one of connection and obligation.Damu Paul Gordon, Senior Custodian, Karulkiyalu Country (Callaghan & Gordon, 2022).

We (spilly and benny) yarn and write together, intwined in each other’s stories, to share a story with you. This is a learning story for all people (including ourselves), though in this case particularly for teachers and the children to whom they are obligated. This story is about more deeply understanding ‘self’ as a socialised, cultural being, which is our interpretation of decolonisation as a transformative process, or ‘derepression’ as we would prefer to call it, following Fromm (1962), through simultaneously engaging new or different relational ways of knowing, being and doing in-Country. Let’s call this ReCountrying.