This panel discusses an interdisciplinary approach to mediations between arts, sciences, and humanities. Its main objective is to explore the transformative impact of Yimbaya Maranoa in our aesthetic, cultural, scientific, and educational practices. Yimbaya Maranoa (listening for the Maranoa) is a First Nations led immersive arts project developed by Gunggari, Maranoa, and visiting artists on Country. The collective meets and creates on various sites within the Maranoa watershed, contributing to organically growing archival resources for community and creative development. These places hold profound significance for the Gunggari Nation, with a history spanning over 40,000 years. These places are also located along the route surveyed by Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1846. The collective project aims to decolonize maps of the Maranoa by foregrounding a series of arts-related works, stories, and perspectives currently absent or less visible in contemporary and historical accounts of the region. The discussion within this panel aims to illuminate the intersection of diverse disciplines and perspectives within the context of Yimbaya Maranoa (listening for the Maranoa, for Country), offering insights into the role of creative relationships as a catalyst for healing our different relationships with Country/Maranoa and to develop meaningful connections and dialogues across multiple knowledge domains.

This panel explores how the experience of deep time can be brought to life in museums to allow people to connect with Country, and to connect objects held in collections with the Ancestors, spirits, continuous practices and living cultures of Australia’s First People. It tells the story of Mangal Bungal - a program of creative activities that brought Jiigurru Country and stories from the Dingaal community to Queensland Museum. Mangal Bungal means “clever hands” in the Guugu Yimithirr language. The project’s lead artist describes natural resources from Country as a “survival kit” that is activated through techniques passed down through the generations by “clever hands”. Mangal Bungal invited the public to engage with this “story-survival kit”, through both old and new story telling technologies, and take part in the work of knowledge sharing and cultural endurance. Through many voices this panel speaks of decades of collaboration, between the Dingaal community, archaeologists, curators and film makers that brought Mangal Bungal into being. It shows how science can integrate creative practice to tell the story of Australian deep time and discusses the impact of that story on the thousands of people who experienced it.