permaculture

[Felicity Wright <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>]

Hey Marcus, I want to extend a hand to you across the miles (kilometres)
and cyberspace. Funny (?) thing is that some of the responses of people
to this issue get me shaking: with pain and sorrow, with anger, with
frustration. I don't want to put any contributors down but feel
compelled to let you know how I feel. I can really relate to Marcus'
anguish. 

Sometimes it's just not possible for people to understand how they form
judgements from within their own culture - because we're the dominant
culture and so rarely experience any major challenge to our shared
points of view (Just switch on the media we are all exposed to, go into
any shop, get any catalogue, talk on an email bulletin board such as
this - all the contributors to this list that I've read basically
operate from within the same cultural paradigm. Sure you may have
political or philosophical differences but we basically all share coomon
understandings). And, our culture is a very judgemental one - we are
constantly making assessments and passing judements on things; whether
it's judging someone's contribution to a discussion list; or judging
whether an elderly Aboriginal lady is being 'fair' when she says she
would prefer not to have knowledge about a certain plant broadcast, so
we label it 'hoarding' knowledge. Gee, I nearly gagged when I saw the
word 'hoarding' - Aboriginal people are many things but they are NOT
hoarders, I have been embarrassed by the generosity of people in sharing
knowledge. 

 I'm kind of resigned to whitefellas acting unwittingly from within
their cultural paradigm (and it happens to be dominant amongst the 
materially powerful in the world) but it still affects me deeply, on
behalf of people who are not understood because our culture is too damn
impatient to take the time to look, think (OBSERVE as permaculture
suggests) and really practice empathy and compassion - or to got outside
our comfort zones and try to IMAGINE what other cultural frameworks
there are. 

Sometimes I have the most intense feelings of racism or incomprension
when I'm in a situation that challenges my values/baggage and it's hard
to own up to that and unpack it. So, I'm not talking about political
correctness and I'm not aligned with any reconiliation movement, I've
just been deeply humbled (and the rest) by my time spent working and
living with Aboriginal people. I don't have any great access to a truth
about Indigenous people and one of the only statements I can make with
conviction is that: the more I have learnt about Indigenous cultures and
peoples the more I realise I don't know (and will never know) - that is
humbling!

I have presented workshops (at South Australia's Permafest) on
'Aboriginal cultures and their relationships to land' because I'm afraid
of our culture's obsession with evangelising and seeking to impose our
values and cultural framework on the world - and that permaculture can
be as guilty as any whitefella mindset. I implored people to think about
the dominant paradigm in ALL aspects of their daily life and how it
influences our attitudes to land and property ownership given that
permaculture is all about land and doing things to it. One of the
fundamental and most significant differences between traditional systems
and Anglo law is the notion of property 'ownership' - for a start there 
is no word in English that I have discovered that comes close to the
Aboriginal words that describe an individual or clan or language groups'
relationship to place and country - our language is incapable of
translating the concept simply, only Bruce Chatwin got even halfway
close and he had to use more than a paragraph. Likewise I have yet to
find an Aboriginal word that means 'to own'. An example I often give to
people is to think about children and their acquisition of vocabulary.
What were the first five or dozen words they learned to use? I'm
prepared to wager that one of the very first words learnt in English is
'mine'. Most toddlers know exactly how to say 'mine' as early as 'mummy'
or 'no'. You will rarely hear Indigenous language speakers in Australia
using that word as children or adults. It's not a part of the cultures
(and I emphasis the plurality of cultures) or mindset. 'Mine' is the
basis of all our Anglo property laws and 'property is nine tenths of the
law'. You/we've had it drilled into us since we were babes, it's
powerful!! (As is language as an expression of culture.)

So, yeah Marcus. We whitefellas do all want, want, want and we want it
fast and we want it with minimum effort and discomfort and we want it on
our terms.

The next time anyone thinks about 'converting' people to permaculture
(or whatever) take a moment to think about the long history of
evangelising/crusading done by Anglos (and the rest) and it's
unimpressive legacy. Hey, I've got a new religion or 'ism' and you all
will embrace it and see its 'rightness' if I just tell you about it
enough or convince you or the wrongness of your way of thinking. I have
yet to meet an Indigenous person who evangelises about Aboriginal
culture (and for culture you can read 'religion' or 'spirituality').
Evangelises as in actively seeks to convert. 

Aboriginal political activism is a different issue (and is about the
right to be heard/acknowledged/recognised) and a separate complex matter
usually to do with urban people.

There's a really powerful chapter in the book 'Why Warriors Lie Down and
Die' on 'Naming, Blaming and Lecturing'. It's scary how often whites and
blacks (he discusses the cooption of blacks into the blaming the victim)
are ready to resort to shafting the easy target or accept the blame
themselves - must be the victim's fault. Sure, they supposedly gets lots
of money/access to lawyers/etc., that should compensate for everything -
why can't they just get their shit together? If only it were so simple
and we could just ignore the long term culture shock, transmission of
trauma to future generations, people still alive who directly
experienced massacres of their families, dispossession, changes in
government policy that will abruptly facilitate or deny access to
services and self governance at a whim (don't get me started - I worked
in the community betrayed by a Liberal government that forced them to
accept a Uranium mine in their country and a licensed club in their
community and it's not a nice story or outcome). There's also some
really interesting stuff on Learned Helplessness discussing welfare,
dependency and loss of mastery. 

It's hard having to confront one's own cultural baggage, especially when
so many people I meet in the environment/alternative movement are
quietly congratulating themselves on their independent thinking. It's
really challenging and uncomfortable for them to work through how the
dominant paradigm seeps into and influences their own values. It still
provides me with ongoing work within myself.

Russ, when I've got a few minutes in the next few days I'll give you a
decent response to your question about Aboriginal art and copyright,
it's one of the things I get asked about frequently and there are some
parallels with plant use and imagery/art/culture (in fact, it's all
joined in Aboriginal society). Maybe it's not relevant to the list and
I'll email you direct. We've got a WWOOFer here at present and she's
keen to work long hours!

cheers
flick 

1earth permaculture wrote:

> 
> To all the above, I reiterate that SHE IS SHARING HER KNOWLEDGE
> ACCORDING TO HER CUSTOM by word of mouth!!! She IS DOING WHAT SHE CAN
> do with her limited resources, limited access to people and technology
> and limited education.  She doesn't have emails, can't be refered to
> websites, doesn't do the lecture circuit, and has been ripped off
> constantly by the "99 in 100" - she's just a simple woman with a lot
> of history.  You guys just want, want, want! LMAO
> 
> Marcus
> 
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