Like
many I have been nursing a growing disquiet about the date on which Australia
Day is celebrated – the date that represents Invasion Day for the first Peoples
of this magnificent land. Indeed basically only marks the establishment of a
penal colony in Sydney to which many of my Irish countrymen were dragged. A
date, I might add on which Australia Day has only been celebrated since 1994.
I
woke up on 26th January and was instantly aware of a sadness and
heaviness in the spirit world. As many of you know I am very privileged to be
allowed to work on a spiritual level with Indigenous spirit and I tuned into
the Aboriginal Ancestor with whom I mostly work and he asked me to tell the
following story.
"A
very long time ago there was one land and one vast expanse of water. Then the
great divide happened and land mass fell away from land mass as the world
re-drew its shape. Over a long time the oceans became themselves and the
continents became themselves. As the tribes of man spread out across the land
they moved slowly and over long periods of time they spread into each corner of
the land, evolving to each climate and habitat. As they went they followed the
earth’s energy lines and through these energy lines, the land they walked
communicated to them. It told them the way to plants and water, to sacred
spots, how to be in communion with the land.
We
became the people of this great southern land mass and this is how we lived. We did not
know that in other lands this knowledge had been lost, that this communion with
earth was no longer understood and honoured.
The
energy line grid in Australia was kept in place by my people and honoured up
until 200 years ago. We still let the earth tell us what she can give, what
should be honoured, what should be sacred, what should be foregone. We evolved
as a people to sing to the earth’s energy lines, we evolved alongside them. We
knew the questions to ask and the energy lines gave us the answers.
These energy lines are also the way the earth keeps herself fed and the loss of each one re-defines the energy of those who destroy it, those living on it, the animals and plants who feed off it and earth herself.
These energy lines are also the way the earth keeps herself fed and the loss of each one re-defines the energy of those who destroy it, those living on it, the animals and plants who feed off it and earth herself.
This
was our bargain with the land now called Australia. It was a bond of trust and understanding – a
bond that was extremely successful for tens of thousands of years. It was what
you would perhaps call a contract.
When
white man came he not only took our land, he took our songs , he took away our
ability to honour that contract.
We
were surprised by how little white man knew – knew only to battle with the land
to beat it into submission, never asked us how to work it, heal it, tend to it.
As
our contract with the land has been dishonoured we have been powerless witnesses
to the animals lost, the birds lost, the habitats lost, the healing plants
lost, the water-ways polluted, the fish and corals lost. We see the energy
lines fade. We see the energy lines fade.
That’s
why we cry today – not just because it marks the invasion of our land, not just the annihilation
of our many tribal nations. On this date our contract with the land of Australia was torn up and thrown
away. This date began the end of an ancient way of being that had truly celebrated this land.
We understand ceremony, we understand the word ‘to honour’, it is part of our culture. We understand the
power of many uniting to put their energy and intention into one thing.
Therefore we deeply believe in the need for this land to be honoured–
that there must be a Day for Australia when all
the people of this land can focus on its wonders and beauty and celebrate. But
this date is not it.
Sing
with my people on another Date, a Sing up Australia Day. A day to be grateful
for all you receive and then to give back – to walk the lines, to feed the
energy of the land around you. Ask my people how to say thank you to the land that is Australia, my goodness my friends – you must say thank you."
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