Knowledge That Walks

Research Focus

We argue that modern education suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding by treating knowledge as mere information to be delivered and measured within individual students. Drawing on the teachings of Yankunytjatjara elder Bob Randall and various Indigenous scholars, we assert that true knowledge cannot be owned or transferred as a static object. Instead, genuine transmission requires custodianship, occurring only through sustained relationships and a sense of intergenerational responsibility to land and kinship. We critique Western pedagogical models, including dialogical approaches, for focusing too heavily on individual achievement rather than the continuity of wisdom over time. Ultimately, we reframes education not as a process of delivery, but as the practice of maintaining the relational conditions necessary for knowledge to survive and “walk” beyond the learner. Knowledge is thus presented as a shared burden of care that binds the past, present, and future together.