So dance with me like the time we’ve got is borrowed

©︎ M.W. Shores. Please cite if you would like to reproduce any contents herein.
So dance with me… is a line from Dave Matthew’s 2020 song “Singing from the Windows.”

I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which my workplace, The University of Sydney, has been built, and which was taken from them without their consent, treaty or compensation.

This land has always been a learning space for many Aboriginal nations, and as teachers and students we can draw strength and guidance from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, one of the oldest knowledge systems in the world. I pay my respects to Aboriginal Elders past, present and emerging, and extend this acknowledgement to any other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who visit this website.

Coming from the American state of Oregon, I also acknowledge that I have lived, worked and benefited from the stolen traditional homelands of the Multnomah, Chinook, Clackamas, Kalapooya, Kathlamet, Tualitin, Clatskanie and Mollala peoples and recognize the strength and resiliency of their descendants who still call that land home. I would also like to acknowledge the stolen lives and labor that built the cities where my relatives still live today.

While a land acknowledgement is a start to a better relationship with Indigenous folx, it is merely a starting point to learning, healing and repairing.