permaculture

[Bob Howard <rmhoward@omninet.net.au>]

georg parlow wrote:

> greetings, together:
>
> for a publication i am working on, i am in search for specific terms (only
> one of which might be readily available). i know what i mean, but i do not
> know how it is called. so i will explain what i mean, and ask you to tell me
> what i am driving at, ok? (too bad this isnt in realtime, we could turn it
> into a contest, who understands my babble fastest...)
>
> both terms i need are about the same subject. here we go:
> what is this crossreferencing pattern recognition called, like "when the
> white lily sets flowers, we gayfully go down to the lake to harvest the eggs
> of the swan" - this, i believe, is from the oz abos, but propably other
> stoneage people worked nature a similar way.

'Aboriginal people
Are coming ot ofthestone age'
She finally said to me
'Why is it that
White man's view is lways
Taken as truth!
Who are they to label?"

from "Who is Stone Age" by Diana Rose Yoka
in 'Those who remain will always remember" an antholoy of Aboriginal Writing
Fremantle Arts Centr Press (2000)


> the first term i would need, is
> the modern name for this kind of science ("allelopathy" keeps popping up in
> my mind, but this is something else, i know). the second term i would love
> to know is, one or several names (from different cultures, if several) for
> one such piece of patterned connection. if it turns out to be an abo name
> (pitanboongha, for example) i would humbly also ask for a literal
> translation, if available. also, what would be the modern scientific name
> for one such pitanboongha?
>

Tjukurrpa is a widely used Western Desert word that is loosely translated into
English as 'The Dreaming'. Most Aboriginal speakers decry this translation as
not capturing more than a pallid reflection of the cultural significance of 
the
term which encapsulates an alternate reality or view of the world.

We are so accustomed to the view of linear time that people often talk about
'The Deramtime' or 'the time when the world was soft' to describe the creation
stories that carry the oral tradition regarding the spirit of the
landscape.However, to Aboriginal people this Dreaming also exists alongside
everyday reality and is a present insofar as the practitioners protect and
nurture the knowledge of a place.

Personally, I don't feel qualified enough to say more, my family have only 
been
here for five generations.

>

Bob Howard