Being land, becoming research: Relational and Country‐led accountability in research outputs and milestones

Abstract This paper invites you into conversation about research accountability grounded in relationality and led by Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa ways of knowing. From this place in so‐called Australia, accountability is not a static or bureaucratic process, but an embodied living practice of respect, guided by existing protocols and relationships with and as Country. Engaging in the relational work of Yandaarra, including a story led by Liz about her PhD confirmation journey, we explore what it means to be accountable to ourselves, each other, and Country not as external observers, but as people learning to be part of the land. We suggest that dominant academic models of research accountability—centred on outputs, funding and institutional ethics—often reproduce colonial dynamics by positioning researchers as outsiders and reinforcing extractive logics. Rather than rejecting institutional research milestones and outputs, this paper considers a Country‐led approach to accountability that emphasises responsibility, reciprocity and relational depth. It foregrounds the importance of story, listening and being with land as critical practices in research. To do so, we share a story of how a conventional research milestone, in this case a PhD confirmation, is much more than meeting institutional standards—it offers an opening to deepen relational accountability, taking seriously situated and complex relationships as diverse beings living and working on stolen land. This paper critically engages with the significance of shifting values from academic metrics towards Country‐led protocols that honour the lives, lands and beings who sustain research. We hope this paper contributes to broader conversations in geographical research rethinking accountability by grounding it in complex more‐than‐human relationships that are reciprocal, dynamic and living. Our invitation is to shift how research is valued—beyond what is produced and centred on how it is held, who it honours, and the depth of connection it nurtures.