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| Kangaroo enjoying the shade and very probably the much too long grass |
This week there have been kangaroos in the front garden and parrots among the roses. Bush creatures are coming down for moisture, food and shade. In the bush, many more birds
can be heard and seen taking advantage of all those burgeoning seed heads
and the weather has become very hot and dry with several days above 35oC. We’ve also had the first bush fire
alerts and warnings that this year – climate change deniers please note, the
chance of catastrophic fires is particularly high.
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| Whiskers the resident Bandicoot stealing the food we left out for a stray chicken |
There was such an abrupt shift in both the weather and the vegetation
this week, that I wondered if it had meaning in the Aboriginal Calendar of
Seasons. I had read that both the Tasmanian Aborigines and those of the Top End
(Darwin, Kakadu) had six different seasons, even though Europeans consider the
north to have only two. Here in the south of Western Australia, the Nyoongar*
people also note six and it looks like the season of Kambarang (hot and dry and
the season of birth) is upon us.
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| Alas, poor Bobtail. This poor lizard (about 30 cms long) didn't make it to the garden. This is a pity because although they look fierce and can actually bite if threatened, they aren't poisonous and are very good at crunching snails. They are slow moving creatures so watch out for them when they come to bask on the roads |
Just like European seasons, these are based on observed
changes in nature, but unlike European seasons they depend less on calendar
dates than on actual changes in the environment, such as the flowering of a particular species, which signal a shift in the movement of Aboriginal people and a
change in activities. For example, at this time of year the Nyoongar people traditionally migrated to the coast to take frogs and turtles or begin burning off to flush out game which they did before
the ground dried out too much, making the risk of large wild fires less likely. Many
native species do require fire for germination and regeneration and the
resulting new shoots provide food for game. Marissa Verma, the speaker in the above video,
describes the the necessity of moving to other locations (nomadism) as, “Nature’s way of restocking the shelves,” just as our supermarkets do at night.
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| Pods and seed heads are the order of the day |
Late comers to Australia i.e. since 1788, are only beginning
to appreciate some of the traditional wisdom of the Aborigines, particularly
with respect to fire regimes, land management practices and the idea that
humans belong to the land, not the other way around. Fortunately, several efforts
are now underway to preserve indigenous knowledge.
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| Xanthorrhorea provided many useful substances for Aborigines including a type of glue for spears |
When white people came to Australia, over three hundred
different languages were spoken by the various tribal groups. Though many of them
have been lost, the Nyoongar
people of this region have created their own Nyoongarpaedia and just this month, the NSW government has legislated for the protection of Aboriginal languages.
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| There are very few flowers now and most of these are white |
Aspects of Aboriginal culture are also being taught in schools, and
far more respect is being accorded to Aboriginal visual artists, dancers, sportspersons,
storytellers and musicians. More importantly, increasingly it is Aboriginal
people themselves who are doing the teaching, the recording, and conducting business and tourism ventures such as
Ecotours and introducing Europeans to things like Bush Tucker, the different
notions of spirituality represented by the Dreamtime and their unique ways of
looking at and treating the land.
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| Tall Everlasting about 1 metre |
While this may not immediately bring about change in
attitudes towards Aboriginal people nor immediately overcome generations of
neglect, abuse and disadvantage, it is certainly a step in the right direction
and may help to restore a sense of pride in a unique and ancient culture –
possibly the oldest living culture in the world. For more on the origins of the
Aboriginal people based on the latest palaeontological and genetic research,
this You Tube video provides interesting background, though clearly the speaker is
American.
This is another .
Aboriginal people represent 3% of the Australian population and number just under half a million. Despite huge efforts – true, some misguided
and paternalistic, by successive governments to heal the wounds of
dispossession and raise the living standards and life expectancy of Aboriginal
people, many continue to fall through the gaps. Voting Rights were granted in 1962, though recognition as
Citizens did not occur until 1967. Land Rights started being granted in the 1970s and many Positive Discrimination measures were introduced. While there have been numerous success stories, alcoholism remains a problem for many and Indigenous
Australians are overrepresented in the prison population where far too many continue to die
in custody. Visitors are often shocked by the conditions in which many live.
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| A new small white flower with small everlastings |
The good news is that as of 2005, life expectancy has begun to increase – closing the 10.6 year gap between Aboriginal males and non -Aboriginal males (9.5 years for women) by 1.6 years for men and .6 for females, but more needs to be done. Simply acknowledging Aboriginal people in the Australian Constitution would be an easy place to start.
* There are several spellings of Nyoongar/ Noogar etc - This is because Aboriginal languages were an oral tradition and thus there is no fixed way of writing a word
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