AustLit
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This trail was prepared by the BlackWords team for The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Catholic Education NSW State Conference held at the Crowne Plaza, Hunter Valley from September 11 to 12, 2019.
We hope you enjoy the trail, and it offers the reader a chance to witness the deep sacred and spiritual connections Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to the land and skies.
Regards,
The BlackWords Team
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Whether it's fiction, non-fiction or traditional stories, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Voices have shared so much knowledge with us already through their words and publications. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the sacred is not separate from the mundane and this is expressed and maintained through a diversity of cultures and cultural practices. Culture and Land is interwoven. Connections to spirit and the ancestors are maintained from generation to generation through elders, stories and as young people deepen their knowledge of themselves, their country and their purpose.
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“These ancestors created order out of chaos, form out of formlessness, life out of lifelessness, and, as they did so, they established the ways in which all things should live in interconnectedness so as to maintain order and sustainability. The creation ancestors thus laid down not only the foundations of all life, but also what people had to do to maintain their part of this interdependence—the Law. The Law ensures that each person knows his or her connectedness and responsibilities for other people (their kin), for country (including watercourses, landforms, the species and the universe), and for their ongoing relationship with the ancestor spirits themselves.” (Grieves, 2009)
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Image courtesy of UQPSee full AustLit entry'In this brilliant debut novel, Alexis Wright evokes city and outback, deepening our understanding of human ambition and failure, and making the timeless heart and soul of this country pulsate on the page. Black and white cultures collide in a thousand ways as Aboriginal spirituality clashes with the complex brutality of colonisation at St Dominic's mission. With her political awareness raised by work with the city-based Aboriginal Coalition, Mary visits the old mission in the northern Gulf country, place of her mother's and grandmother's suffering.
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This image has been sourced from BooktopiaStories about the Wandjina creation spirits compiled by Aboriginal elder Mowaljarlai and photographer Jutta Malnic; four other Aboriginal elders assist in elaboration upon Wandjina ancestry to beginning of human existence; creation and renewal of nature; journey to Lejmorro rock paintings; family story of Mowaljarlai and the life of the Wandjina people; mission education; traditional bush existence; Bradshaw rock paintings. - Mura (AIATSIS Collections Catalogue) (...more)See full AustLit entry -
Image courtesy of publisher's website.'Renowned Eastern Arrernte painter Kathleen Kemarre Wallace tells stories of her elders and their way of life that she learnt as a child and young woman. Her storytelling illuminates the origins and beliefs of Eastern Arrernte people, and calls for respect for the ancient traditions of the altyerre spirits who brought her country into being. Kathleen's knowledge of country, law and culture shine through in her words and mesmerising paintings.' (Source: Back Cover) (...more)See full AustLit entry -
Dadirri - Deep Listening
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Dadirri is a practice, a meditation and a way of listening to hear the 'deep inner well' inside all of us. For Miriam-Rose, this is the entry practice to a spirituality which she says is the great gift from Aboriginal culture to the Australian people. Read more words from Miriam-rose about Dadirri here. Dadirri is not just a practice, it is a way forward for people suffering from spiritual and emotional disconnection.
Nauiyu is an Indigenous town in Australia’s Northern Territory. It is home to some 450 people, and is located on the Eastern bank of the Daly River, 220km by road from Darwin. Nauiyu was established by the Catholic Church as a mission in 1955. This was the Church’s second attempt to develop a presence in the area; Austrian Jesuits served near the Daly River from 1886 to 1899. In December 2013, senior elder Miriam Rose Baumann, the Katherine Red Cross and the local Government Engagement Coordinator met to discuss how to tackle the problem of self-harm and suicide and identify resources available in government and non-government organisations. One of the first decisions they made was to establish the Nauiyu Action Group. Like its acronym suggests, the group was determined to nag and nag until things began to happen.
One year after the group was formed, it listed its terms of reference:
- Work with and coordinate the delivery of mental health services at Nauiyu;
- Be the representative body at Nauiyu that can speak for and on behalf of matters pertaining to Indigenous mental health, social and emotional wellbeing, self-harm and suicide;
- Show or demonstrate ownership of the issue;
- Provide guidance and advice to agencies and NGOs working in the Daly River Land Trust area;
- Advocate for a regional approach to the delivery of mental health services in the region;
- Encourage the sharing of knowledge and resources between agencies and NGOs. Encourage, advocate and lobby for the establishment of mental health support systems that draw on traditional Indigenous knowledge;
- Identify triggers that contribute to self-harm;
- Encourage the use of all forms of engagement to get knowledge about mental health and social and emotional wellbeing into Nauiyu and across the Daly River Land Trust;
- Identify methods and techniques to engage with the community.
Incidents of self-harm at Nauiyu have dropped steadily since NAG was established. NAG has taken some of the burden off the local health staff, especially in the preventative realm. It has encouraged other support services to move into this space.
Source: The Miriam-Rose Foundation.
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Image courtesy of The Conversation.See full AustLit entryDr Victoria Grieves is an historian from the Warraimay people of the midnorth coast of NSW. She works in interdisciplinary ways to progress Indigenous knowledge production in the academy and has published a baseline for Indigenous knowledge production in Australia in the book Aboriginal Spirituality: Aboriginal Philosophy, in which the history of Aboriginal people since colonisation is critically analysed in the framework of ongoing Aboriginal cultural values, ethics, and knowledge of their own responses to colonisation.
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See full AustLit entry
'Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann was born in the bush near Daly River in 1950. While Miriam-Rose is a member of the Ngangiwumirr language group she also speaks four other local languages.
When Miriam-Rose was about five years old she was placed in the care of her aunt Nellie and uncle Attawoomba Joe, a legendary police tracker. She subsequently moved with her aunt and uncle to live at police stations at Adelaide River, Pine Creek and Mataranka, where she attended government schools. While maintaining her traditional cultural education, she learned to 'read the country' as well as the pages of her text books.
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