BENCHWARMER

Transforming to the indigenous view
RAMON DACAWI

Students from all over recently shared with each other the news of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s pre-Valentine’s Day formal apology to his country’s Aboriginal people for the years of injustice inflicted on them.

“Such relief to be able to share this incredible news with you!,” e-mailed Alp Pir, from Turkey and one of the youngest and incisive in the class. He clicked it to Cristina Leal and Olivia Ferreira Leite of Brazil; Bablu Ganguly in India; Erin Scott, Barbara Tam and Jodee Power in the United States, Andreas Aubert in Norway, Kamal Bhandar in Nepal, Rudy Dhont in Belgium Lena Bahou (Beirut?); Azmir Hossain in Bangladesh, Romy Kraemer in Germany or Holland, Clive Ardagh , Adam Charters and Jane Oddie in the United Kingdom and to the rest of the 20 or so students who met about this time last year for a three-week glimpse of the indigenous view.

That view was opened by Schumacher College, that small, prestigious international center for ecological studies in Devon countryside of England. The college offers a masters degree in holistic science, aside from short courses ranging from globalization, ecological perspectives of psychology, to spirituality and philosophy – and indigenous knowledge.

The college honors E.F. Schumacher, the respected economist who wrote the classic book “Small is Beautiful”. It was founded in 1991 by Satish Kumar, an Indian visionary who, in his youth set out on foot and delivered a message of peace to the leaders of the nuclear world..

Like the other courses, Alp Pir’s on “Indigenous Peoples and the Natural World” was meant to transform students, for them to emerge with a deeper sense of purpose and clearer direction in their work helping bring communities closer to what they should be.

Transform they did, through the lectures, discussions, film shows, hikes and meditations. And through manual work. They found that cleaning the halls, washing dishes, cooking, gardening, and cooking ( totally vegetarian food Azmir thought he wouldn’t survive with until he found and fried some eggs).were quite uplifting, something close to what writer May Sarton described as “sacraments of the ordinary”.

There were no exams, no certificates of completion at the end of the course. Yet what a view they had, under the guidance of college director Karen Bincoe, Kumar, teacher Stephan Harding, scholar in residence Brian Goodwin, the staff .and facilitator Jan van Boeckel.

They got hooked to the Aboriginal view mainly through the Australian perspective and experience. Esteemed anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose raised the class’ consciousness to the Aboriginal “Dreamtime” and concept of “Country” “Country”, in the Aboriginal view, is one that nourishes life and everything in it. Art patron Rebecca Hossack introduced them to Aboriginal art - the oldest in human history – with sample paintings depicting the “Dreamtime”, which may refer to the story of creation and the places where the creation spirits lie, or the realm that Rose noted Aborigines enter into during rituals.

Aboriginal elder Bob Randall, a gentle soul that reminded Prof. Harding of the Dalai Lama, came and shared “Kanyini”, an award-winning documentary on the historical injustice the Aborigines suffered in the hands of colonizers. With Bob as narrator, the film vividly captures the anguish of the Stolen Generations, the tens of thousands of Aboriginal children who were plucked from their parents and placed in institutions, to be educated under and in white Australian norms and way of life.

Kanyini means “interconnectedness”, stressed Randall, a half-Aborigine and traditional co-owner of Uluru, the famous rock sacred to his people. “The purpose of life is to be part of all that there is. Our parents said we are connected to everything else, and the proof is being alive. You’re one with everything there is.”

Bob belonged to the Stolen Generation. He never saw his mother again. He spoke without bitterness – but with humor – that rendered his presentations all the more powerful.

“We need to heal together,” he repeated his message at Schumacher. That was a year before Prime Minister Rudd delivered the formal apology in parliament. Here’s the full text of the well-written, well-said Australian government’s apology: Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written. We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.
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Api e-mailed a postscript to his fellow students all over: “I hope the talk will be walked.” “I, hope so, too” Rebecca answered from London. (e-mail:rdacawi@yahoo.com for comments)