Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] The dominant paradigm, evangelism and knowing when to shut up and listen

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Felicity Wright" <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] The dominant paradigm, evangelism and knowing when to shut up and listen
  • Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 13:03:22 +0930

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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page