National Symposium to Celebrate Indigenous Knowledge, Storytelling and Theological Wisdom

The Holders of Our Knowledge and Keepers of Our Stories Symposium will bring together leading Indigenous scholars, theologians, cultural knowledge holders and community leaders for two days of deep conversation, cultural exchange and spiritual reflection in Adelaide from 7–8 July 2026. Hosted at Pilgrim Uniting Church, the symposium invites participants to explore how ancient wisdom, story, law, culture and language continue to shape communities today. As the program states, the gathering centers on ‘the sharing and transmission of ancient wisdom, spirit, law, culture and language founded in our cosmology and philosophy‘.

A Gathering of Renowned Indigenous Thinkers

The event features keynote presentations from respected voices across Australia, the Pacific, Taiwan, Myanmar and beyond. Professor Dr Anne Pattel‑Gray will open Day One with a powerful reflection on Aboriginal matriarchs as “holders of knowledge and keepers of stories” who have passed down culture, law, kinship and moral integrity across generations. Rev Prof Dr Nasili Vaka’uta will explore Pacific understandings of knowledge as relational, embodied and spiritually grounded, noting that stories act as ‘living theological texts through which communities discern meaning, responsibility, and hope‘.

Further keynote sessions include:

• Dr Chang‑Hua Lin on the theological significance of how Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples have named God across 400 years of church history.
• Rev Prof Dr Hukato N. Shohe on Küthsükime, a Sumi concept of relationality and joinedness that shapes Indigenous theological method.
• Rev Canon Dr Garry Deverell on the practice of theological conversation on Country, grounded in careful listening, truth‑telling and responsibility.
• Naomi Wolfe presenting a decolonising framework that recentres Indigenous Knowledges as rigorous theological systems.
• Assoc Prof Fanang Lum Lahpai examining how biblical and ancestral creation stories shape identity, gender, justice and community among Myanmar’s Kachin Christians.

A Space for Dialogue, Reflection and Community

Across both days, participants will engage in group discussions, keynote reflections, and a closing ceremony led by Professor Dr Anne Pattel‑Gray, Des Rogers and John Lochowiak. The symposium offers a rare opportunity to sit with Elders, theologians and cultural knowledge holders whose work challenges, enriches and expands contemporary theological understanding. As one session notes, Indigenous knowledge systems “are not extra to Christian theology but constitute rigorous, generative knowledge systems” that reframe how communities understand Christology, ethics and interpretation.