There is a cultural shift taking place in Australia, which began in the 1960s, when First Nations people were first recognised as human beings by the law.
If we wish to live in harmony with the people who have been on this continent for much longer than us western settlers, we must recognise that this land was never ceded by its original inhabitants. This land was taken by force, and we still celebrate the day the First Fleet arrived from England as ‘Australia Day’. If we wish to have a national holiday that all Australians can celebrate, perhaps we should pick a date that doesn’t signify the day which began the demise of the culture of the original inhabitants of this land.
I liked Bob Brown’s suggestion recently to keep the 26th January as a public holiday but to call it Recognition Day instead. This goes to the heart of what First Nations people have been asking for generations. Acknowledgement of what happened, although this will not be enough. It’s not enough to listen. We must also alter our attitude toward the land which now gives home to all of us.
If we wish to have a national day that we can all celebrate, let’s make it a neutral day, one that doesn’t evoke pain for the people who have lived here the longest. And let’s actually listen to what First Nations people have to say, to what they have to teach us. If they say that land is sacred and that we must not cut another coal mine out of the Earth, let’s heed that advice. There are more important things in this world than the economy. There is at least 40 000 years of lessons that remain in the culture of our Indigenous people. We can ignore their requests and their advice only at our own peril.
To commemorate Recognition Day this year, I will share with you some of my notes I jotted down in my journal last year upon reading an essay by Wendell Berry titled ‘A native hill’, written in 1968. His view of the land brings to mind the attitude of native people around the world. In particular, I like his comparison of a path to that of a road.
A.S. -26.1.2022, Lenah Valley
From 'A Native Hill (1968)' by Wendell Berry
“I am forced, against all my hopes and inclinations, to regard the history of my people here as the progress of doom of what I value most in the world: the life and health of the Earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households.”
“The idea was that when faced with abundance, one should consume abundantly, an idea that has survived to become the basis of our present economy.”
“A path is little more than habit that comes with knowledge of a place… It is not destructive. It is the perfect adaptation, through experience and familiarity…
A road on the other hand, embodies a resistance against the landscape… Its wish is to avoid contact with the landscape… its tendency is to translate place into space in order to traverse it with the least effort.”
“The thought of what was here once and is gone forever will not leave me as long as I live. It is as though I walk knee-deep in its absence”.
“I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it. “
“Until we understand what the land is, we are at odds with everything we touch.”
“I have thrown away my lantern and I can see the dark.”
“It is not from ourselves that we will learn to be better than we are.”
