Connecting to Place, Caring for Country: A Personal Response

The event was presented by Future Dreaming in association with Australian Earth Laws Alliance. The speakers were:

·       Dr Mary Graham, Kombumerri person, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland and Director of Future Dreaming

·       Dr Michelle Maloney, Co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance

·       Ross Williams, of the Bindall/Juru people, Director of Future Dreaming

Participants came with different interests, diverse questions and divergent concerns, and no doubt went away with much to reflect on: how we define ourselves, what we assume and value about this land, how we fit into the interconnected community of life, what are the consequences of these world views – and what we can change in our own personal and collective lives to protect and enhance this place and our place in it.

Rather than attempting the impossible, to present a complete report on a complex array of ideas and discussions, this blog offers one individual’s responses to some key points of an immensely illuminating day’s discussions.

Dr Mary Graham offered the following insights, which turn upside down a Westerner’s assumptions:

·       The Indigenous Dreaming is not a religion, ideology or philosophy, as an intellectual construct; instead, it offers what “just is” – a “world-view” and a way of being which encompasses the land and all its inhabitants.

·       “This country made us human” – the first hominins in Australia became human in this place and were shaped by their environment. The creatures who preceded humans here were therefore ancestors with much to teach humans about the place.

·       The consequence of this is a permanent obligation to the land that made its people: “I am located, therefore I am”. “The country knows who I am.” This is vastly different from the view of the Western “Enlightenment” philosopher, Descartes, that “I think, therefore I am.”

·       This obligation can be termed “relationism”, and entails looking after something beyond oneself. This is not to deny an individual’s autonomy, but it does mean taking a stance as a member of a community that does not prioritise competition and hierarchy. Power is not to be simply equated with authority. Elders, who have acquired or inherited knowledge and experience, are endowed with authority.

·       Ethics is a matter of situated lore, rather than some abstract concept of universal law. The obligations of custodianship of a place are therefore localised. The many different bioregions of the continent produce different practices and ways of being.

Dr Michelle Maloney offered a critique of Western law and governance and challenged us to consider how we can rethink “place”. She argued that:

·       We need to understand the legacy of colonialism, capitalism and corporations and their impacts on taken-for-granted forms of governance today.

·       Non-Indigenous Australian relationships with the land are founded on dominant assumptions about property and ownership, domination of the environment, utilitarian values, and separation of “us” from the land we inhabit.

·       These cultural assumptions, values, beliefs and attitudes are obstacles in our developing a different, more benign and respectful relationship towards stewardship of the land and our place in it.

·       We need to understand the current overarching, interconnected systems of ownership, rights and practices; then we will be better able to work with or around or against them in order to move towards a better relationship with our land.

These presentations were immensely illuminating and offered a necessary unravelling of what is either usually simply taken for granted (the Western world-view of land tenure and use) or not understood (Indigenous ways of identification with the land).

What follows from this? What are the ways that would enable us to move forward, and what obstacles must be addressed – and how? Where there are incompatible views, can they be reconciled? Where if anywhere is there room for compromise? What processes might best enable such dialogue? Discussions about these often difficult questions have yet to be held, within the local community.

Contributed by Wendy Morgan