permaculture

["Bill Kearney" <waamkearney@burnett.net.au>]

Idealism is for the young.  Reality is a little harder to swallow.
----- Original Message -----
From: Felicity Wright <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>
To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 9:53 AM
Subject: Re: plants DB - indigenious


> 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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