permaculture

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

You can tell/urge/beg a 'whitefella' (white person) to "shut up and listen" 
and they still just can't/don't/won't bloody hear.

I am a non-Indigenous Australian woman. I have spent the last 20+ years 
living, working and socialising with Indigenous Australians in remote 
communities and towns.

What  I have learnt is a lot about my own culture and cultural conditioning. 
The freakiest thing about the dominant paradigm that we live in, in this 
country (and is probably pretty similar throughout English speaking world) 
is the overwhelming urge to proselytise, evangelise, lecture and hold claim 
to an exclusive knowledge of the 'truth' or 'knowledge'. It is what has 
driven colonisation and wars. It can be presented as a religion, a political 
'ism', and even dear old permaculture has it's share of zealots. We have the 
truth and everyone else is just too dumb or ill-informed to 'get it'.

I have been in many, many situations in many places and have yet to 
encounter an Indigenous Australian hectoring or aggressively telling me 
about the truth of their world view. I have been privileged to be told 
creation stories, visited sites, learn of ancestral beings. I have been told 
stories (by living survivors) of massacres, forced displacement, loss of 
homes, country, and control by government over movement and living 
arrangements. However, my knowledge of such things is barely at a pre-school 
(equivalent) level even after all these years.

What has impressed me time and time again is the generosity of Indigenous 
people keen to share their knowledge and understandings and cultures 
(because there are many Indigenous cultures - they differ all over 
Australia) with anyone who will take the time to stop and listen. There has 
never been a hint of superiority, arrogance, or intolerance. There has been 
no suggestion that I must believe them or to not believe implies I am 
inferior or misguided. It has been a SHARING, something offered 
unconditionally and with metta (although that's not a word that translates 
in to any Aboriginal languages that I'm aware of). As a friend of mine says 
"it just is".

And my view of such things is not just romanticised notions of noble 
savages. I've seen all sorts of stuff and some is pretty traumatic. Much is 
the legacy of post-colonialism and is similar to what is experienced by 
Indigenous/colonised peoples all over the world.

A lot of my work is in capacity building with Indigenous organisations and 
people (particularly artists) to encourage them to have the skills/tools to 
be assertive and find their way through or in spite of the dominant 
paradigm. To express themselves, their identity and their culture. At the 
same time I educate non-Indigenous Australians about alternative ways of 
conceiving the world and encouraging respect for Indigenous expression and 
culture - that's a big job! Some people have real trouble opening their ears 
and recognising their own limitations and that they operate within an 
invisible but incredibly pervasive paradigm. And it can be highly 
'alternative' thinkers who can be just as stuck in their particular dogma as 
the George Bushs of the world.

I'm very sensitive to racism. I wrestle with my own, uncomfortable issues 
about racism, sometimes having feelings that I am ashamed of. Perhaps that 
is why I responded so strongly to the post. I work on my own 'stuff' daily. 
I also daily feel blessed that I have had my heart and mind opened and have 
been so lucky to have experiences with Indigenous Australians. We 
whitefellas could all do with more shutting up and listening - which is why 
I hesitated about doing a long-ish post.

Thanks to everyone on the list for being part of the community.

Again, with metta
flick