Where, Who, When in Systems Change

The growing interest in using Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to address systems change and champion intergenerational justice in Australia has started to find ways into mainstream discourse. However, to avoid the co-option of these knowledges, this paper offers change-makers provocations to assist in recalibrating perspectives on systems change efforts and epistemic injustice. These provocations are the combination of our experience from work in systems change and the insights gained from an application of IKS us-only closed circle work between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors. We briefly outline the process used to generate insights, sharing the differences between Indigenous-led and non-Indigenous processes, positing that there is a prerequisite personal undertaking via a cultural or co-inquiry space to facilitate the translation of IKS into mainstream practices for non-Indigenous changemakers, in particular. We argue for an adaptation of third space terminology to facilitate a decolonised and IKS-led approach to complex systems change and, in doing so, challenge concepts of time and how decolonising our assemblages may have the potential to uncover new capabilities for sense-making. We suggest these as prerequisite undertakings prior to embarking on systems change initiatives and conclude with a calling-in for future generations to ground them in Indigenous ways of knowing and doing.