Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 17:20:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: aboriginal life writing


This is an excerpt I found from Diane Ackerman's Deep Play. I think Denise
Cuthbert and Kay Shaffer would find it especially interesting, but of
course it is for the enjoyment and education of all. It discusses how
the Aborigines' land is so intimately tied into their being. Their self
is their land. A new region represents a different self. Loss of land
means loss of self. If this is a sample of  Aborginal Life Writing it
could make for a very interesting study. Is there any collection of
letters from a PC writer that anyone would reccommend?
Thanks,
Melanee

To the Aborigines, geography is memory. Every mile sings, every mountain
speaks of their ancestor's journeys. Nothing is irrelevant, nothing is
lost to death. All things partake of life's spirit and vitalitym the land
is vigorously alive, unseen forces flourish, and all have a special
site(or Dreaming Place) that is a spiritual home for them and their
ancestors. The following plea for land rights by Gulawarrwuy Yunupingu and
Silas Robers, chairmen of the Northern Land Council, offers a beautiful
definition of the Dreaming:

Aborgines have a special connection with everything that is natural.
Aborigines see themselves as part of nature, We see all things natural as
part of us. All things on earth we see as part human. This is told through
the idea of the dreaming. By dreaming we mean the belief that long ago,
these creaturs started human society; they made all natural things and
put them in a special place. These dreaming creatures are connected to
special places and special roads or tracks or paths, In many cases the
creat creatures changed themselves into sites where their spirits stayed.
My people believe this and I believe this. Nothing anybody says to me will
change my belief in this. This is my story as it si the story of every

true Aborigine.
These creatures, these great creatures, are just as much alive today as
they were in the beginning, They are everlasting and will never die. They
are always part of the land and nature as we are. We cannot change nor can
they.Our connection to all things natural is spiritual. We worship
spiritual sites today. We have songs and dances for those sites and we
never approach (them) without preparing ourselves properly. When the great
creatures moved across the land, they made small groups of people like me
in each area. These people were given jobs to do but I cannot go to any
further than that here.
It is true that people who belong to a particular area are really part of
that area and if that area is destroyed they are also destroyed. In my
travels throughout Australia, I have met many Aborigines from other parts
who have lost their culture. They have always lost their land and by
losing their land they have lost part of themselves.
I think of land as the history of my nation. It tells of how we came into
being and what system we must live.. My great ancestors who lived in the
times of history planned everything that we practise now. The law of
history says that we must not take land, fight over land, steal land, give
land, and so on. My land is mine only because I came in spirit from that
land and so did my ancestors of the same land...
My land is my foundation. I stand, live and perform as long as I have
something firm and hard to stand on. Without land...we will be the lowest
people in the world becuase you have broken down our backbone, taken away
my arts, history and foundation. You have left me with nothing.







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