27 July 2022 – Exploring Australia

Deep Respect for Nature

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, an area 32 times the size of the Netherlands with only 250,000 inhabitants. Many Aboriginal people still live in this area. Their ability to survive here for around 60,000 years makes them one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world.

“The Aboriginals must have lived sustainably, otherwise they would have become extinct”, Ivar reasons. We wonder if there is anything left of their culture and lifestyle after all the horrors done to them following Australia’s colonization. If so, what can we learn from them to live more sustainably?

We put our question to Sara Jones and Jamie Thomas of Wayapa Wuurk, an organization that is committed to the well-being of the earth, mind, and body. Jamie has Aboriginal ancestors and set up this organization together with Sara. The name means “connected to country” in his family’s Aboriginal language. “One of my Elders said: ‘The state of the world is what it is because people are disconnected from the land they are living on. Disconnected from the cycles, the seasons, their responsibilities, and from listening to those who have that connection. We can’t be healthy when Mother Earth is sick.’ That really resonated with me, so Sara and I set out to reconnect people with nature”, Jamie begins.

“All cultures once lived much more in harmony with Mother Earth, but that relationship has been disrupted in many ways. Think of the exploitation of the earth and its pollution as a result of greed and materialism. The Aboriginal people have retained their connection to the land longer than Western cultures, some of them to this day,” Jamie continues.

“The other thing that we have lost is intergenerational well-being: honouring our ancestors and taking care of the land today for generations to come”, Jamie laments. “You didn’t take more than was necessary. Wildlife populations and plants were kept healthy because unwritten rules and customs dictated that you didn’t’ take more than you needed. In some cases, only certain groups were allowed to eat a certain animal species, or only at certain times of the year”, Jamie explains. “There is a reason Aboriginals are referred to as stewards of the land. They survived thanks to a deep respect for nature on which they depend”, he adds.

Colonial Horrors

Sara’s and Jamie’s words make us realize how far removed our Western culture has become from being connected, or in sync, with nature. The Aboriginals have had their connection violently taken away from them. According to the authoritative Australian professor and writer Marcia Langton, when the British started to colonize Australia in 1788, the continent was no wilderness. Rather, it was a managed series of landscapes. That’s because the Aboriginals were not only hunters and gatherers, but also used smart aquaculture and agricultural methods. They had fish traps, cultivated grain, yam and onion, and managed the grass to promote fertile soil. The Aboriginals traditionally lived in the open air, which made them experts in reading the light and shadows of the day, the movement of the stars, the colour, direction and shape of clouds, the signs of smoke and dust, the levels of water, the direction that birds were flying, and the tracks and scats of animals. They predicted the weather from the rings around the moon and the seasons from tracking the movement of ants and birds. They knew that seasons began with the appearance of particular ecological indicators, like the flowering of a particular tree or the appearance of particular insects, and understood which weather patterns were associated with each season, such as wind, temperature, rain, or dew. They used almost every plant in some way, also for bush medicine.

When the British arrived, the colonizers forced Aboriginals from their land, often violently. Farms and grazing animals changed the landscape, ending the Aboriginals’ ability to hunt, gather, and fish. They starved as cattle and sheep polluted waterholes and destroyed grasslands along with their agricultural plots. As a result, many Aboriginals became dependent on rations and handouts.

Nature in Art

Despite the hardships, some surviving Aboriginals managed to sustain their way of life. We are eager to meet Aboriginals who still personify a strong connection to the land, so we leave Luci behind in Darwin, take out a campervan, and embark on a journey of discovery of the Northern Territory.

In Kakadu National Park we soon encounter traces of the Aboriginals. They left paintings of animals and social gatherings on rocks all over the park. Some date back thousands of years. The Aboriginals depicted fish and other wildlife to honour the animals that provided their tribes with food. The hunters hoped that their artistic tributes would help them be successful in their hunting endeavours. Their art clearly reflects the deep bond that they held with nature. In addition, we conclude from the images that the Aboriginal people only ate what was available locally and, by definition, in season. Naturally, knowledge of the environment, the cycles of plants and animals, and the weather patterns were essential for their lifestyle.

In Harmony with Nature

Through locating an organization called Animal Tracks, we get the chance to spend a day with an Aboriginal woman named Patsy. She shows us how to find freshwater mussels buried in a dry riverbed, choose the right leaves from a pandanus tree, and make string from them for rope. She rips off pieces of bark from one tree to cool the skin and from another tree to use as a cover for cooking. Just about every plant has a function. We pluck geese and ducks, put them on green leaves in the fire, and cover the lot with bark to cook the meat to perfection. Meanwhile, Patsy talks about “the right way” – doing things as she learned them from her ancestors, with respect for nature. The “right way” may entail understanding where and when which food source is plentiful, like the goose we are preparing for dinner. It is only because these birds are bountiful that it is okay for the tribe to hunt them, which is the standard used to determine whether any animal can be hunted. By adapting to environmental conditions in this way, the area’s biodiversity is preserved.

“Yarning” – telling stories by the campfire while we prepare the tucker (food), is also typical of her culture. It’s the way to pass on stories, traditions and unwritten rules. At the root of these is a responsibility for the land, nature, and the survival of families and future generations. Thanks to Patsy, we get a sense of what life has been like around here for thousands of years. We decide to dedicate a Sustainable Solution item to the Aboriginals’ way of being “Connected to Country”.

Fire against Fire

On Patsy’s land and elsewhere in Kakadu, we notice black patches of land. “We recently set fire to a section there” Patsy remarks. The Aboriginals use fire strategically to manage the land. By burning small pieces under the right climate conditions, they prevent uncontrolled fire, like fires caused by lightning, from wreaking havoc. The Aboriginals keep the fire small so that the treetops don’t burn, stimulate plants that thrive after the fire, and protect fire-sensitive plants. Plants and animals recover quickly after such a controlled fire and kangaroos are attracted to the young grass. In turn, they are a source of food for the Aboriginals.