In their post Seeing, Feeling, and Hearing the World, guest contributors Kankawa Nagarra Olive Knight, Anne Poelina, and Sandra Wooltorton from the Kimberley in the north of Western Australia tell of the Indigenous experience of Country and Land as relational, animate, living and responsive.
Yes, indeed, Katherine, how we use our English language and gently adapt it to be less objectifying. We can use words like Land and Country and River as proper nouns (this is, I gather, more common in Australia. Do you remember when there was such a fuss about manholes and chairman and othe gendered language? We have on the whole found our way around that without the world falling apart! Do you know Robin Kimmerer's writing on pronouns like 'ki'. More awkward, but in a way part of the point. Maybe there is a post to be written reflecting on these issues. Than you for your appreciation.
Inspiring article. It's not easy 'to go back to the land' (as I have tried these last 16 years) and listen in to the deeper messages, and join in with the bigger picture. I guess "white man got no dreaming" goes back too many generations in western culture to believe we can reconnect in a few years. However, I still believe it's a possibility. Europeans had their connection with the land severed centuries ago (by the catholic church) and more 'recently' by being starved off the land to go into factories for the Industrial Revolution. A double-whammy of power politics & religion that will take some time to recover from.
So many thanks for your comment, Joshua. It’s my commitment in my later years to learn as much as I can about land as sentient and responsive. Sometimes Land speaks and I hear. But other times I seem to be deaf.
I'm in the process of selling this bit of land now -- I can't look after it any more, which is dispiriting -- but hopefully we will be able to buy a smaller patch of land close by where we live, and explore the possibilites of 'small is beautiful'. And there's always walks down to the river ...
Peter, your writing saved me this morning. We are mired in the “who tends” to our beautiful River here in the mountains. In the meantime, the River suffers. I’m spending more time with your piece after work. Gratitude 🌱🌿💚
Lately, I have wondered why we put "the" in front of animate beings. I've done that even when I capitalize River. Thank you for your quiet teaching. No 'the" needed.🌱
Yes, indeed, Katherine, how we use our English language and gently adapt it to be less objectifying. We can use words like Land and Country and River as proper nouns (this is, I gather, more common in Australia. Do you remember when there was such a fuss about manholes and chairman and othe gendered language? We have on the whole found our way around that without the world falling apart! Do you know Robin Kimmerer's writing on pronouns like 'ki'. More awkward, but in a way part of the point. Maybe there is a post to be written reflecting on these issues. Than you for your appreciation.
https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/
Inspiring article. It's not easy 'to go back to the land' (as I have tried these last 16 years) and listen in to the deeper messages, and join in with the bigger picture. I guess "white man got no dreaming" goes back too many generations in western culture to believe we can reconnect in a few years. However, I still believe it's a possibility. Europeans had their connection with the land severed centuries ago (by the catholic church) and more 'recently' by being starved off the land to go into factories for the Industrial Revolution. A double-whammy of power politics & religion that will take some time to recover from.
So many thanks for your comment, Joshua. It’s my commitment in my later years to learn as much as I can about land as sentient and responsive. Sometimes Land speaks and I hear. But other times I seem to be deaf.
I'm in the process of selling this bit of land now -- I can't look after it any more, which is dispiriting -- but hopefully we will be able to buy a smaller patch of land close by where we live, and explore the possibilites of 'small is beautiful'. And there's always walks down to the river ...
Peter, your writing saved me this morning. We are mired in the “who tends” to our beautiful River here in the mountains. In the meantime, the River suffers. I’m spending more time with your piece after work. Gratitude 🌱🌿💚
Blessings on you and on River from the heights above Loch Broome
received.
i will relay to Swannanoa River.🌱
Lately, I have wondered why we put "the" in front of animate beings. I've done that even when I capitalize River. Thank you for your quiet teaching. No 'the" needed.🌱