![]() Without their connection to land Aboriginal artists cannot create. The notion of landscape as a second skin is central to every Aboriginal art form, whether it be theatre, dance, music or painting. Land sustains Aboriginal lives in every aspect, spiritually, physically, socially and culturally. Aboriginal people are born into the responsibility to care for their land, today and with future generations. And caretakers." An Elder explainsīob Randall, a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional custodian of Uluru (Ayer's Rock), explains his connectedness to the land and how every living thing is connected to every other living thing. "We weren't looking after for somebody else to come and take away. "We're not custodians, we're not caretakers," he says. It is tricky to find appropriate words to express their intimate relationship, as John Christophersen, deputy chair of the Northern Land Council, knows all too well. Aboriginal peoples' preference can be very personal – some reject being an owner, others accept the term. Most texts use 'custodians' or 'owners' when referring to Aboriginal peoples' relationship to their lands. This story is available as a children's book of the same name. And when I was lost, she showed me the way home.’ When I was thirsty, she gave me water when I was hungry, she fed me when I was cold, she warmed me. Her little brother asked her if she had been afraid but the girl said – ‘How could I be frightened? I was with my Mother. They growled at her for her foolishness, and cuddled her, and gave her a place by the fire. The people laughed and cried at once to see that the girl was safe. She followed him through the trees and over the rocks and up the hills, until at last she saw the glow of her people’s campfires in the distance. Finally she saw a crow flying in the moonlight, flapping from tree to tree and calling ‘Kaw! Kaw! Kaw!’. Then the night grew colder, so she huddled beneath an overhanging rock, pressing herself into a hollow that had trapped the warm air of the day. She grew thirsty, so she stopped by a waterhole to drink, and then hungry, so she picked some berries from a bush. Now it was night, and no one answered when she called, and she could not find her way back to camp. She had hidden in the shadow of a rock, and fallen asleep while she waited for her brothers and sisters to find her. ![]() She had wandered far from the Mothers, the Aunties and the Grandmothers, from the Fathers and the Uncles and the Grandfathers. We endeavour to live with the land they seemed to live off it. We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. "For many Indigenous people it's a visceral connection you look beyond the buildings and concrete and feel a sense of belonging," she says. ![]() "I often wonder how to connect with my country when I'm in the city," wonders Aboriginal dancer and choreographer Francis Rings. That is why the removal of Aboriginal people from their ancestral lands has been so disastrous because the loss of country leads to loss of that language and culture. Īboriginal languages described intimately the land and the culture of the people who spoke them. They "feel the pain of the shapes of life in country as pain to the self". Land is their mother, is steeped in their culture, but also gives them the responsibility to care for it. The health of land and water is central to their culture. Aboriginal law and spirituality are intertwined with the land, the people and creation, and this forms their culture and sovereignty. They have a profound spiritual connection to land. Country is loved, needed, and cared for, and country loves, needs, and cares for her peoples in turn. Country is filled with relations speaking language and following Law, no matter whether the shape of that relation is human, rock, crow, wattle. Rock, tree, river, hill, animal, human – all were formed of the same substance by the Ancestors who continue to live in land, water, sky. "For Aboriginal peoples, country is much more than a place. Palyku woman Ambelin Kwaymullina explains: They 'develop' land, as if it was unfinished or raw.įor Aboriginal people the relationship is much deeper. Non-Indigenous people and land owners might consider land as something they own, a commodity to be bought and sold, an asset to make profit from, but also a means to make a living off it or simply 'home'. Key take-away: The land owns Aboriginal people and every aspect of their lives is connected to it.
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