Central to Indigeneity is identity and belonging and to bestow validity to one’s identity is to have connection to country. Indigenous persons maintain this connection in a multiplicity of ways, from caring for country to the practice of storytelling. Through storytelling, it can affirm identity and belonging to Indigenous ontology. Haynes (as cited in Read, 2000) argues that “the conceptual divide between European notions of a landscape derived from the perspective of an empowered observer… and the Aboriginal understanding of a spirit-filled landscape through which individuals access their identity”. Therefore, accessing this identity through the conceptual practices of storytelling asserts that Indigenous identity lay in the land. It is through
