Flinders Ranges, South Australia, Adnyamathanha Yarta
The old Adnyamathanha man places another log on the fire before sitting back down beside me. Uncle, as we will call him in the traditional Adnyamathanha way, stares into the flames for a minute, then begins to speak.
"We have lost so much" he says "our language is in danger of dying, many of our ceremonies have disappeared from knowledge — but we still have the ‘yarta’, the land. But our yakartis [children] need to listen, to learn about its ways, or we will lose our connection with the yarta too."
Uncle laments the way that so many indigenous youth leave their home territory and look for ‘opportunity’ in the big cities. They lose touch with their tribal family and the ways handed down, generation to generation, over thousands of years. "They want white man’s lives — they scoff at what we try to teach them. That’s just old fella talk, they say. Well, now it may just be the ‘old fella’ wisdom that helps save the planet."
He reminisces about life as a child in the outback, and the ways his father and grandfather taught him, to ‘listen to the bush’, to observe and read what the land was telling him and adapt to it — and not expect the land to adapt to him. Without these skills, passed down, the Adnyamathanha could not have survived in the often harsh environment of the Flinders Ranges, in northern South Australia. To them, listening to what their elders taught wasn’t just a ‘lesson’, but the difference between scarcity and enough, even life and death.
"This is what we face again today." he says "If we don’t learn ourselves how to live with respect on this land, we will be taught respect by a harsh mistress — Mother Nature herself. And it’s not just Yura’s [Adnyamathanha] who need to re-think how they are living today, but Utnyu [white people] too… people all over the world. They should be learning the ways of their elders — how they lived, their respect for the land. They worked with nature, not against it. If we want to survive, that’s what we have to re-learn."
Uncle still has hopes that this lesson will be learnt in time, but, he warns, if we don’t do it soon there may be no coming back from where we are headed. "We are affecting the planet — and not for the better — changing climate, melting ice caps, pumping toxins into the environment seemingly without care, destroying habitats and causing extinctions on a scale never seen before. What will be left for our children’s children? And what right do we have to do this?"
What right indeed? It’s time to stop living as if the future didn’t matter… wasn’t our concern. As Uncle says, let’s learn from our ‘elders’, of whatever colour or nationality they may be, and get back to a gentler, more intuitive way of living on the Earth… before it’s too late!
The message rings true and hopefully not to late. The Same sentiments are relayed up here in the northwest coast of america. The Lummi tribal elders are working hard to be stewards of the diminishing salmon runs. The disappearing cedar forests and toxic beaches. their young warriors are doing battle with themselves as they fight addicting psycho-toxins. There is hope when wisdom speaks.
Hi Anthea, I was delighted to read your article. I will definitely send this on to several friends. Over the last 6 months I’ve been participating in the Awakening the Dreamer, Change the Dream Symposium, which is an excellent presentation which was put together in response to a similar cry from the Achuar people (an indigenous nation of the Amazon). I feel that your Adnyamathanha uncle is right in saying that the indigenous peoples of the world have the wisdom to save the planet! All the best in your vision, Jennifer
Hi Anthea, I was delighted to read your article – will definitely send on to friends. Over the last 6 months I’ve been participating from Australia in the Awakening the Dreamer, Change the Dream Symposium – an excellent presentation responding to a similar cry from the Achuar people (an indigenous nation of the Amazon). I feel that your Adnyamathanha uncle is right – the indigenous peoples of the world have the wisdom to save the planet! All the best in your vision, Jennifer
Hi Jennifer and Lloyd. Thanks for taking the time to comment! Yes, our indigenous elders have so much to offer in ways of living in harmony with nature. It’s time indeed that we listened and took on board a lot of their ‘ways’ which have almost been obliterated by ‘western’ ways.
The indigenous people lived sustainably for thousands of years, while we in industrial civilization are trashing it in a few hundred. They are the wisdom keepers — and if their children are seduced to white culture cities, who will the elders share their wisdom with? I hope some permaculturists and planet lovers are building communication lines with indigenous elders like Uncle, building trust, finding ways to carry on and retain that wisdom and re-institute some of the practices. Does anyone know where this might be happening–anywhere?
Hi Janaia! Lovely to see you involved in this ‘conversation’. I’ve been involved to some degree with some of the Adnyamathanha people here in South Australia. There is some attempt at getting the children and young people of the Adnyamathanha people re-involved with trying to save their language, stories and whatever else is left of their knowledge and culture.
Unfortunately so much has been forever lost, as Uncle said, because the Adnyamathnha people were persecuted for attempting to retain their culture. Children were taken away from their families, and severely punished if they even tried to speak in their own language… hence why there are only a handful (I can’t remember the actual number, but I’m pretty sure it was under 20) of fluent Adnyamathanha speakers left alive today!
There is some revival of the language and culture through the schools in areas where many of the Adnyamathanha now live. There is also a wonderful class being held in Adelaide, where both children and adults, ‘white’ and Adnyamathanha, have the opportunity to learn the language, along with some cultural aspect, together. I, along with my husband, son and mother attended this class for quite some time, so got to hear a lot of the wisdom shared by the wonderful elders who helped inspire the young people.
In the Adnyamathanha communities that still remain in the Flinders Ranges there is also a lot of effort going into reviving a lot of their practices and ideas, both for their own people’s awareness, and for anyone who cares to visit. Of particular merit is a settlement called ‘Iga Warta’, where many Adnyamathanha skills and crafts are showcased, as well as taught. There is definitely a lot of awareness and concern for what we have done to the planet by many of these elders… let’s hope that enough of the children, whatever nationality, take heed of what they have to share.
So, hopefully what is left can be built upon… but there’s a long way to go I think before the general population of Australia acknowledge what they have to offer… let alone put their wisdom into action. But… it has to start somewhere!