Southern Sky Standpoint

Historically, Northern Hemisphere academies have dominated the frameworks, theories, and models used in higher education and organisational life. The Southern Sky Standpoint does not aim to replace one dominant theory with another. Instead, it creates a space for people under a Southern Sky to participate in a reflective journey—adding diverse Southern perspectives and First Nations relational wisdom to international conversations.

Living in a hegemonic society that portrays a single collective "normal" can make positioning your standpoint feel uncomfortable or vulnerable. Yet for many marginalised groups, exclusion from Western normality is a daily reality. This workshop invites us to sit with discomfort, unpack our implicit filters, and stand in solidarity with diverse ways of knowing.

Core Reflective Inquiries

• Social Location & Ancestral Lineage: How have your ancestors, family background, and social power shaped what you unconsciously accept as 'normal'?

  • Ontology (Being): Are you relying strictly on Anglo-Western empirical divisions, or do you make room for interconnected, living, and relational realities?

  • Epistemology (Knowledge): How do you decide what constitutes reliable knowledge, and which sources of wisdom do you unconsciously value or dismiss?

  • Axiology (Values in Interaction): What moral, cultural, and relational values guide your interactions, and how do you navigate conflicting value systems in group life?

  • Solidarity & Discomfort: How do you move beyond explaining and justifying your standpoint, to hold space for discomfort and stand in solidarity with diverse knowledges?