An struggling culture ...

Nunga udnyus! mmm yeah.. wee bit of a belated post, but alls good and ive settled into Nepabunna and am having a ball! So im living in an Aboriginal community of 54 Adnyamathanha people, 7 horses and lots of udlu and munja (kangaroo) and amazing eagles. i love the eagles. And i cant think of anywhere more in the back arse of nowhere. the big open spaces are AWEsome. and im quickly learning some foresight when it comes to shopping - i ran out of bread and milk last week but hopefully someones going to the nearest shop (an hour away on a dirt track!) next week sometime!! tuna tins it is.

I've been doing work on the protected area and learning lots of plants and their uses and dreamtime stories and yesterday they said id learnt enough language and plant uses that they might initiate me to the first level! whioop! so i might come home! only joking. half.

Its also kindof a little bit sad cuz this is the heartland of their culture and biggest remaining group (54!) and despite alot of v v inspiring elders, the older people are sometimes so sad at the younger peoples apathy and disinterest in their knowledge (which is immense) and the last ever initiated elder died in 2002. so all his knowledge is lost forever - bec knowledge has to be earnt here, so like they only tell you stuff about the land once youve reached a certain spiritual maturity (bec land and spirituality are so together). And kids are being kids and watching tv and it makes me think about all those questions about merging cultures and the infinite dilemmas about what values and habits and rituals and priorities to keep and what to leave behind and what to change and what to preserve and I guess theres no right answer but you wanna say 'STOP! throw away your tvs and go out into the bush and remember and have fun and stop being zombies!!!" but obviously you cant do that bec you dont know what its like from their viewpoint and you may well just be being naive. But they cant live like they used anymore and eat traditional bush tucker even if they wanted to because white settler pastoralists' sheep have eaten all the food and they reckon more than 70% species have become extinct since explorers arrived in 1788.

so there we go ... that is the view from where im sitting at the minute!
xox

ps. theres currently a 10year drought, and the land and farmers are really struggling. Lots of people are praying, and doing rain dances, and hoping ... so if any of those are your thing, please join in.