permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

ATTN: Steve, Christopher, Scott, me.........

People Power: A few thoughts on modern industrial times from Kerri Gill
(FaceBook, from Australia)

"I was born and raised on Guringai land, although I didn't know it at the
time. All I was taught of local Aboriginal people and culture was that the
nearby suburb of Manly was so named because Captain Cook was impressed by
the welcome of the indigenous people.

I now am beginning to understand the history of genocide, torture, rape,
displacement, introduction of disease and removal of children. 'Beginning',
because structural and cultural disadvantage continue. From shorter life
expectancies, poorer health outcomes and higher incarceration rates, the
first people of this land continue to suffer at the hands (or rather,
institutions) of the colonial invaders.

Moreover, the land is suffering. For tens of thousands of years every part
of this continent was carefully nurtured by its traditional people. They
tasked themselves with maintaining the wellbeing of land, water, plants,
animals, and spirits. The land sustained them indefinitely. In just over 2
centuries, introduced 'modern' agricultural practices have managed to erode
the soil, pollute the rivers, lower (and now poison, thanks to modern
mining) the water tables, remove vast swathes of vegetation (which, by the
way, is what moderates rainfall), cause extinctions of many native species,
introduce plagues of pest animals and weeds, and fill the soil with
chemicals. Finally some are realising that the traditional owners hold the
wisdom to restore and maintain the land but many still condescendingly view
their practices, tested and refined over millennia, as primitive.

This 'Australia Day' my hope is that more non-indigenous Australians will
take an interest in the impressive history and achievements that occurred
here thousands of years before the arrival of the First Fleet, including
the oldest stone buildings, funeral rites, bread baking, longest surviving
engineered structures (see Brewarinna fish traps), and of course the
longest surviving culture on Earth. I also hope we will all have the
courage to face up to the atrocities committed by our ancestors and the
continuing impact it has on a people and culture with incredible wisdom and
resilience. Mostly I hope we will develop a desire to learn from them and
put into practice the knowledge of how this continent can sustain life
indefinitely without degradation and pollution."

"So this morning I was reading in the summer Diggers mag about a guy from
Thailand called Mechai Viravaidya who has been establishing schools for the
poor on the principle that everyone deserves the opportunities that come
from a proper education. Parents who can't afford the fees pay for their
kids education by doing work in the school gardens.

So while our governments are cutting support to our poor in the name of
balancing the budget, and handing taxpayer money to mining billionaires to
stimulate the economy because allegedly the trickle-down effect will do
more good for the poorer end of town in the long term, real solutions are
being implemented by everyday people by bypassing the economy altogether.

Here's to people power. Find a social problem and solve it without relying
on money. Or government."


-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared