This post is dedicated to the Darkinjung & Guringai tribes, the original owners of this land, the south eastern peninsula of the Central Coast of Australia.
The Australian Aboriginal invasion has always caused me great distress. At university I studied a unit of Aboriginal culture & heritage. At one point I had to write an essay on the invasion - in short, I couldn't do it. Every time I would sit to read & write about this very painful experience for the Aboriginals I would cry - sometimes uncontrollably - I felt really sad. I went to my Indigenous teacher (Macquarie University only employs Aboriginals to teach about their culture). She was understanding, sympathetic. She gave me more time. In this time I focused on another assignment. This time I had to find an Aborigine - a real Aborigine. This was difficult as most of them had been killed & now tribes often live a long way away from suburbia. I was walking to the bus stop one day & saw a didgeridoo & a kangaroo skin - I looked around - no Aboriginal in site - at first I was breathless, then calm, & then I waited an hour, two... still nothing. I wrote a note & left it on the skin. A week later I got a call from his wife & yes, she would allow me to talk to him. We met. He took me on a very long walk through the bush - 5 hours. We talked & I learnt a lot. He took his didgeridoo & played it over me whilst I lay on a huge rocky escarpment. We walked, laughed & ate. On that day, through experience, I found out more than I had ever known about Aboriginal culture & heritage. I apologised to him on behalf of my ancestors for what they had done to his culture.
One of the most upsetting things for me is the loss of so much of this culture, the people & their languages, in particular the bush medicine, knowledge of flowers, food (often referred to as bush tucker) & most importantly, the Dreamtime. For me, the Aboriginals of Australia have such a profound, gentle & beautiful understanding of spirit. The Dreamtime (or Dreaming) is the source of the rich artistry, creativity and ingenuity of the Aboriginal people. Here is a piece written by Robert Lawler.
The Australian Aborigines speak of jiva or guruwari, a "seed power" deposited in the earth. In the Aboriginal world view, every meaningful activity, event, or life process that occurs at a particular place leaves behind a vibrational residue in the earth, as plants leave an image of themselves as seeds. The shape of the land—its mountains, rocks, riverbeds, and water-holes—and its unseen vibrations echo the events that brought that place into creation. Everything in the natural world is a symbolic footprint of the metaphysical beings whose actions created our world. As with a seed, the potency of an earthly location is wedded to the memory of its origin. The Aborigines called this potency the "Dreaming" of a place, and this Dreaming constitutes the sacred-ness of the earth. Only in extraordinary states of consciousness can one be aware of, or attuned to, the inner dreaming.
~ Voices of the First Day
The beautiful part of this post is hope, reconciliation & Love. Courses are available in Aboriginal teachings. Some here & more here. We plan to take our children to some of these courses when they are old enough. In the meantime, we will continue to follow them on walkabout...
