Have loved this quote from Wendell so much, thanks for including it here. "We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that people exploit what they have merely concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love. To defend what we love we need a particularizing language, for we love what we particularly know." – Life Is A Miracle, Wendell Berry
A key question is how we get folks, especially when they are young, out into nature to begin to help them appreciate and care for it. I love the recapturing and invocations of the collaborations (the moth-paintings and moths), yet we also need that people simply be outside in nature to experience it *as* themselves.
I know you're reading Tyson Yunkaporta, who says succinctly, "You want to know what your purpose is? I'll tell you, it's simple, to take care of the land." You elucidate the quality and character of that care clearly in the resources you've shared. It is a co-creative activity in the Creation that is ongoing, eternally present. If we can meet that with the depth of gratitude and reciprocity it calls us to, much will solve itself.
The saying and singing of the landscape is right there in the word: "en-chant-ing"
More from Tyson. From an interview: "you talk about the fact that humans, at least at the moment are the custodial species for the earth. Tell us about that, and what does that mean?
Tyson: Yeah. Well, that comes out a lot of our old stories from all over. It’s our purpose for being here. Our emergence in this system has been because the system had need of a custodial species for its long longevity, but also to maintain increase within the system. So increase as opposed to growth. So not growing in the size of the system, but increasing the relatedness within the system, all of the connectivity, those infinite combinatorials, we’re supposed to oversee that. And about everything we do is supposed to work in with that, our culture, everything else, it’s not supposed to be something that’s separate from nature. There isn’t even supposed to be a separate concept for nature because we are nature. We occupy a very important ecological niche. It’s not an apex niche or anything like that either.
Tyson: We have a very important ecological niche. We’re supposed to be in this habitat, and anywhere where we’re not there, you might think of it as untouched wilderness, but that place will be dying because it needs us there. Those trees have evolved over a long time to even just need our urine. If you’re not pissing on the ground in those places, those plants will be suffering over time and you’ll see dieback in places, and wonder why is there a dieback happening there? And I’m looking at it and thinking, well, that needs a couple of decades of people pissing on those trees to make that place work again. And to be bringing shellfish and things up from the coast and sitting down and camping there because, those the things that are coming in from there. That environment is depending on us bringing those things into it just in our cultural practice, taking fish from the river and eating it there. I guess the same way with the bears and the salmon, those forests need those salmon there and the bears eating the salmon off in the trees because the trees have come to depend on what’s coming out of the salmon."
Returning to your thesis, we do clearly need to be the caretakers and become those who can love, serve, preserve and enrich the land. I want to live in such a culture.
It is so very refreshing to read this issue and reflect on how the language we use in our day to day urban lives has changed so dramatically from the simple everyday agrarian vocabulary we grew up with on the Canadian prairies in the 1950's. Virtually every conversation concerned grains, vegetables, weeds, flowers, shrubs, trees, and the anticipated effects of rain, fog, snow, cloud cover, or frost on our growing plants, coupled always with the uncertainties of receiving the correct balance of life giving sunshine. Everyone opined on the effects of temperature, wind, rain, insects or birds, of storms, cyclones, blizzards. Those types of conversations consumed most of our verbal interactions with others but also filled most people's minds in quiet times too. Definitely a farmer was a vital component of the natural order or life, and most of us have lost that connection completely.
That distinct vocabulary that defined and informed the relationship of humans with nature is nearly all gone now. Weather today is mostly reduced to a discussion of what we will wear to deal with it, the food in the supermarket is available regardless of sun, rain, heat or cold.
Your articulate article is an excellent reminder that we can still reconnect with the rhythm of the natural world just by our thoughts, the words we use, and those reflections could lead us to reflection, re-involvement and climate action.
Yet another wonderful soulful insight into the relationship between the natural environment and the people who live within it. Of course I am attracted to your words on the First Nation people of Australia, as I am Australian. Their rich relationship with the environment spanning over 60,000 years can teach us a great deal. How is it that the mutualism of their dual relationship with the environment has been spoiled by the other inhabitants of Australia, who over only 250 years have changed that relationship into a one way symbiotic gain, where the environment has not received the care needed? Of course the First Nation's people are and have been very concerned that their caretaking that has been of the highest level is not considered and applauded, and that the environment is at peril.
When you speak about Songlines, I can't help but think of the Songline that is mirrored in the massive highway across the Nullabor plain from Perth to Adelaide, being accurately replicated to the Songline. The walking routes so carefully majestic in their understanding of place, astrology and geograpy, and then so beautifully spoken and song, and sometimes drawn and written into the being of every generation, and so soulfully passed down to family. An Aboriginal Elder told me that we don't own the land, "it owns us". In those 3 simple words she enunciated the fullness of an important part of their cultural beliefs. In the movie called “Australia” with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, you can see the Elder man calling home the lost boy. Not the greatest movie but it does mention Songlines.
One of the many elements I admire of our First Nation people is their true existential nature and understanding of their place and purpose in the story of life. They don't mention time, as a man made construct, but they do value ancestors and descendants, and being in the present moment.
When I worked at a university I looked after the marketing and events of a social science faculty. Amongst that faculty was the School of Anthropology. Two of the professors of Anthropology had worked for years with some indigenous communities at the top of Australia, as the local mobs mapped out the stories, the water holes, the food resources, the sacred places, the safe from the weather places, and the resting places. The map was an atlas of all that information, written and illustrated. it was one of the most beautiful artworks I had ever seen. The atlas was replicated by the State Library, as the original was to return to its home. I had the task to collect from the airport two Elders who would speak to the media and academic staff and students about the Atlas before they took it home. In the journey from the airport to the campus, I lost my directions a bit. I pulled over to look up the street directory and re-navigate my route. They both laughed hard at me, and said, "you don't even know your own land". They asked me if I wished them to call my grandmother so she could "sing" me home. What a wonderful time I had hosting those women.
Even though I was brought up in a non-indigenous home, I think my parents had an inkling about the power of nature. My mother always made me hang out the washing in bare feet to make a daily connection to the earth. My father who taught me to swim believed that learning to float was important for safety, but it also had a spiritual connection to the environment. As you lay flat in the water he used to say "are you in communication with the water or the sky?" always made me/ still does make me really deeply think about that connection.
Adam as you use your language here to open these conversations, know that your heartfelt words are appreciated, and may they bring conscious thought to action in making our world a healthier place.
As I open to the chapter titled REFRAME of the book ALL WE CAN SAVE, a compilation of essays by women at the forefront of the climate crisis, to prepare for my book circle, I notice the illustration for that chapter by Madeleine Jubilee Saito with the inscription: "The problem of the climate crisis is a failure of language. The right word would be as long as the lives of my grandchildren and their grandchildren". (see it with this link https://www.allwecansave.earth/circles/week-four-reframe). And then I am reminded that I have not read your newsletter yet and vaguely remember that the term "language" was in the title. And here you are, talking about the songlines and walkabouts of the Aboriginal Australians. And what comes to mind is that the songlines are indeed as long as (and actually much longer than) "the lives of the grandchildren and their grandchildren" and that, as you so well explain, by losing our songlines, we have lost ourselves and our land has become dead. The silver lining is that it's not too late to start singing a new world into being. Thank you for continuing to enrich my understanding of the deep interconnectedness of things. PS: I also really enjoyed the extract of the interview of Arkady by Chatwin and it reminded me of the buddhist notion of emptiness, especially of emptiness of time. Fascinating.
Have loved this quote from Wendell so much, thanks for including it here. "We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that people exploit what they have merely concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love. To defend what we love we need a particularizing language, for we love what we particularly know." – Life Is A Miracle, Wendell Berry
A key question is how we get folks, especially when they are young, out into nature to begin to help them appreciate and care for it. I love the recapturing and invocations of the collaborations (the moth-paintings and moths), yet we also need that people simply be outside in nature to experience it *as* themselves.
I know you're reading Tyson Yunkaporta, who says succinctly, "You want to know what your purpose is? I'll tell you, it's simple, to take care of the land." You elucidate the quality and character of that care clearly in the resources you've shared. It is a co-creative activity in the Creation that is ongoing, eternally present. If we can meet that with the depth of gratitude and reciprocity it calls us to, much will solve itself.
The saying and singing of the landscape is right there in the word: "en-chant-ing"
More from Tyson. From an interview: "you talk about the fact that humans, at least at the moment are the custodial species for the earth. Tell us about that, and what does that mean?
Tyson: Yeah. Well, that comes out a lot of our old stories from all over. It’s our purpose for being here. Our emergence in this system has been because the system had need of a custodial species for its long longevity, but also to maintain increase within the system. So increase as opposed to growth. So not growing in the size of the system, but increasing the relatedness within the system, all of the connectivity, those infinite combinatorials, we’re supposed to oversee that. And about everything we do is supposed to work in with that, our culture, everything else, it’s not supposed to be something that’s separate from nature. There isn’t even supposed to be a separate concept for nature because we are nature. We occupy a very important ecological niche. It’s not an apex niche or anything like that either.
Tyson: We have a very important ecological niche. We’re supposed to be in this habitat, and anywhere where we’re not there, you might think of it as untouched wilderness, but that place will be dying because it needs us there. Those trees have evolved over a long time to even just need our urine. If you’re not pissing on the ground in those places, those plants will be suffering over time and you’ll see dieback in places, and wonder why is there a dieback happening there? And I’m looking at it and thinking, well, that needs a couple of decades of people pissing on those trees to make that place work again. And to be bringing shellfish and things up from the coast and sitting down and camping there because, those the things that are coming in from there. That environment is depending on us bringing those things into it just in our cultural practice, taking fish from the river and eating it there. I guess the same way with the bears and the salmon, those forests need those salmon there and the bears eating the salmon off in the trees because the trees have come to depend on what’s coming out of the salmon."
https://jimruttshow.blubrry.net/the-jim-rutt-show-transcripts/transcript-of-episode-66-tyson-yunkaporta-on-indigenous-knowledge/
And to prove his point, this article talks precisely about the Salmon, and what they bring up stream to feed the forest, and thus the bears and moose. https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-oceans-mysterious-vitamin-deficiency/
Returning to your thesis, we do clearly need to be the caretakers and become those who can love, serve, preserve and enrich the land. I want to live in such a culture.
It is so very refreshing to read this issue and reflect on how the language we use in our day to day urban lives has changed so dramatically from the simple everyday agrarian vocabulary we grew up with on the Canadian prairies in the 1950's. Virtually every conversation concerned grains, vegetables, weeds, flowers, shrubs, trees, and the anticipated effects of rain, fog, snow, cloud cover, or frost on our growing plants, coupled always with the uncertainties of receiving the correct balance of life giving sunshine. Everyone opined on the effects of temperature, wind, rain, insects or birds, of storms, cyclones, blizzards. Those types of conversations consumed most of our verbal interactions with others but also filled most people's minds in quiet times too. Definitely a farmer was a vital component of the natural order or life, and most of us have lost that connection completely.
That distinct vocabulary that defined and informed the relationship of humans with nature is nearly all gone now. Weather today is mostly reduced to a discussion of what we will wear to deal with it, the food in the supermarket is available regardless of sun, rain, heat or cold.
Your articulate article is an excellent reminder that we can still reconnect with the rhythm of the natural world just by our thoughts, the words we use, and those reflections could lead us to reflection, re-involvement and climate action.
Thanks again Adam.
Yet another wonderful soulful insight into the relationship between the natural environment and the people who live within it. Of course I am attracted to your words on the First Nation people of Australia, as I am Australian. Their rich relationship with the environment spanning over 60,000 years can teach us a great deal. How is it that the mutualism of their dual relationship with the environment has been spoiled by the other inhabitants of Australia, who over only 250 years have changed that relationship into a one way symbiotic gain, where the environment has not received the care needed? Of course the First Nation's people are and have been very concerned that their caretaking that has been of the highest level is not considered and applauded, and that the environment is at peril.
When you speak about Songlines, I can't help but think of the Songline that is mirrored in the massive highway across the Nullabor plain from Perth to Adelaide, being accurately replicated to the Songline. The walking routes so carefully majestic in their understanding of place, astrology and geograpy, and then so beautifully spoken and song, and sometimes drawn and written into the being of every generation, and so soulfully passed down to family. An Aboriginal Elder told me that we don't own the land, "it owns us". In those 3 simple words she enunciated the fullness of an important part of their cultural beliefs. In the movie called “Australia” with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, you can see the Elder man calling home the lost boy. Not the greatest movie but it does mention Songlines.
One of the many elements I admire of our First Nation people is their true existential nature and understanding of their place and purpose in the story of life. They don't mention time, as a man made construct, but they do value ancestors and descendants, and being in the present moment.
When I worked at a university I looked after the marketing and events of a social science faculty. Amongst that faculty was the School of Anthropology. Two of the professors of Anthropology had worked for years with some indigenous communities at the top of Australia, as the local mobs mapped out the stories, the water holes, the food resources, the sacred places, the safe from the weather places, and the resting places. The map was an atlas of all that information, written and illustrated. it was one of the most beautiful artworks I had ever seen. The atlas was replicated by the State Library, as the original was to return to its home. I had the task to collect from the airport two Elders who would speak to the media and academic staff and students about the Atlas before they took it home. In the journey from the airport to the campus, I lost my directions a bit. I pulled over to look up the street directory and re-navigate my route. They both laughed hard at me, and said, "you don't even know your own land". They asked me if I wished them to call my grandmother so she could "sing" me home. What a wonderful time I had hosting those women.
Even though I was brought up in a non-indigenous home, I think my parents had an inkling about the power of nature. My mother always made me hang out the washing in bare feet to make a daily connection to the earth. My father who taught me to swim believed that learning to float was important for safety, but it also had a spiritual connection to the environment. As you lay flat in the water he used to say "are you in communication with the water or the sky?" always made me/ still does make me really deeply think about that connection.
Adam as you use your language here to open these conversations, know that your heartfelt words are appreciated, and may they bring conscious thought to action in making our world a healthier place.
As I open to the chapter titled REFRAME of the book ALL WE CAN SAVE, a compilation of essays by women at the forefront of the climate crisis, to prepare for my book circle, I notice the illustration for that chapter by Madeleine Jubilee Saito with the inscription: "The problem of the climate crisis is a failure of language. The right word would be as long as the lives of my grandchildren and their grandchildren". (see it with this link https://www.allwecansave.earth/circles/week-four-reframe). And then I am reminded that I have not read your newsletter yet and vaguely remember that the term "language" was in the title. And here you are, talking about the songlines and walkabouts of the Aboriginal Australians. And what comes to mind is that the songlines are indeed as long as (and actually much longer than) "the lives of the grandchildren and their grandchildren" and that, as you so well explain, by losing our songlines, we have lost ourselves and our land has become dead. The silver lining is that it's not too late to start singing a new world into being. Thank you for continuing to enrich my understanding of the deep interconnectedness of things. PS: I also really enjoyed the extract of the interview of Arkady by Chatwin and it reminded me of the buddhist notion of emptiness, especially of emptiness of time. Fascinating.