INDIGENOUS STORY TELLING
Australia: Walking on Country with Spirits (Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change
The film Australia: Walking on Country with Spirits (Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change), by Tony Gross, presents the audience insight into the life of the Jalkajaka people. It shows the Jalkajaka peoples’ thoughts and perspectives on current day Australia, compared to past times. The film gives the audience a cultural viewpoint toward the land, country, and the inhabitant’s apparent behaviors and values. Australia gives emergence to the Indigenous community’s concern for the welfare of their home, land, country and survival.
A means to communicate this is through insight into the life of one particular Kulu Nygungkal woman living with her family, the ancestral way, in Shiptons Flat. Gross presents the viewers with deep insight into the alternate beliefs, connections, values and morals, which are inbuilt into the Indigenous culture. For example, the Jalkajaka people care for the land like it is their mother, residing within it, their family and ancestors. Gross however raises concern about their ability to sustain their way of life, due to the implications of western culture.
The film illustrates the Aboriginal people’s view of the country as their mother, their home and themselves. Kuku Nygungkal Aboriginal woman, Marilyn, states, “we have an obligation to care for everything, all people must stand together”. This is supported by research on the topic by Muller (2012 p. 60) who states:
For many Indigenous systems, knowledge is constructed through understanding connections of species to each other, to people, ancestors, stories, dances, art, science, politics, economics, power, society and the cosmos.
This extends into all aspects of life: worshipping the stream of water, “it is our spirit, it is a good spirit” says Marilyn. The sacred water is described as vital to sustaining life, it brings fresh drinking water and food. A strong connection to the land and subsequent aspects of nature is felt, believing that the care given, is subsequently received. Marilyn visits Bangkalaraan, the stream, “He is our boss”, “We like him so much, and he likes us so much.”, “he gives us water to drink”.
Gross directs focus to the change in climate in the recent decade, which is impacting on the Jalkajaka people’s ability to continue living “the ancestral way”. A way of life which was sustained for thousands of years. McBride (2000, p. 2) states:
The Kaurna people, the original inhabitants of what is now known as the Adelaide Plains, are believed to have one of the oldest living cultures in existence. Scientific estimates of their occupation of these lands range from 50 000 to 120 000 years
While this indeed offers a proven sustainable way of life, the corresponding hunter-gatherer way of life offers little to no room for technological advancements,, which have seen western culture grow and expand rapidly. McBride’s (2000, p. 2) following statement makes apparent the strength in this lifestyle, which Aboriginal communities hold, and western society lacks:
…our sense of shared community continues to erode under the onslaught of ever-evolving new technologies, the emergence of a new social code emphasising individualism and the comprehensive application of market-based economic fundamentalist principles and policies.
This era of technological innovation in western society has furthermore lead to implications which affect traditional indigenous societies all over the world. Gross expresses the heightening concern for Marilyn’s ability to continue living in her home, with her family and the ancestral spirits in Shiptons Flat. Global warming is causing native species becoming extinct or migrating to higher land, meaning their food source is vanishing. “If our meat and other food sources climb up higher into the mountains, and into cooler climates, they will disappear into the skies, and we will starve”, “There will be nothing left, because this place is getting hotter” says Marilyn. Additionally, the impacts of mining and damming the land have left the Jalkajaka people bereft. Marilyn speaks of the place where her eldest sister and great grandfather are buried, the water used to run freely and “the trees had been growing beautifully”, now a barren wasteland destroyed by a mine; the water became undrinkable and caused the animals to leave. She professes a strong sense of sadness and connection to this land, “Whitefella made the dam and it destroyed the land.”.
Tony Gross presents the audience with Marilyn’s story and innermost thoughts as a technique to capture the attention and develop understanding of the issues within these communities. This ploy is successful as it provokes the sense of compassion and concern for the wellbeing of all other animals and humans. Delving the audience into a desire for understanding the Jalkajaka people from a deeper level of appreciation and care. A greater acceptance of differing cultures is achieved by Gross, helping communicate the concerns of communities which do not have resources to do so themselves. In this case, the understanding of the Kuku Nyungkal Aboriginal people’s distress, worry and sadness is communicated successfully.
While the film is successful in communicating a strong message of distress from the Jalkajaka people, it is not as though the viewer can immediately understand the indigenous connection to land as it is rooted in personal experience and culture. Therefore, the audience is also incapable of fully understanding the recurrent suffering experienced. The following quote by Muller (2014 p. 134), underpins the nature of the reality of inbuilt cultural difference in way of comprehension:
N(atural)R(esource)M(anagement) is based on Western cultural traditions, in particular Western science, which is founded in Enlightenment thinking in which ‘man’ is separate from and superior to a perceived ‘nature’ … Caring for Country, on the other hand, is often understood as Indigenous peoples’ management of their traditional lands and waters, which they call their ‘country’. Country is ‘… more than a geographical area: it is shorthand for all the values, places, resources, stories and cultural obligations associated with Indigenous people’s rights and identity’ … Despite the cultural traditions that defined the construction of Western scientific thought, the cultural construction of Natural Resource Management is so often denied and overlooked that Western perspectives are perpetuated as a ‘normal’ and unquestionable way of understanding the world. In contrast, the cultural aspect of caring for country is over-emphasised, as though its cultural construction minimises its validity and value.
The value of the film is in sharing a story of a deeply personal nature, which attempts to bridge that cultural divide. It is intended to increase understanding and empathy of western viewers and give voice to a highly marginalised person and her culture. The film did not attempt represent the views of Aboriginal people who live in cities and towns who also feel connection to their culture. It focused on one persons story in order to make a deeply personal and strongly realised viewpoint.
References:
Gross, T 2012, Australia: Walking on Country with Spirits (Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change), video, YouTube, January 3, viewed 17 March 2018, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbJeA8iP70g>.
McBride, G 2000, Adelaide’s recipe for life: Wisdom of the Kaurna, Hawke Institute Working Paper Series No 11, Hawke Institute, University of South Australia, viewed 24 March 2018, < http://www.unisa.edu.au/Documents/EASS/HRI/working-papers/wp11.pdf>
Muller, S 2012, “ ‘Two Ways’: Bringing Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Knowledges Together” in J K Weir (ed), Country, native title and ecology, ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated, p. 60.
Muller, S 2014, ‘Co-motion: Making space to care for country’, Geoforum, vol. 54, pp. 132-141, viewed 23 March 2018, < https://www-sciencedirect-com.access.library.unisa.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0016718514000906>