Caring for Ngarigo Country

Caring for Country and Caring for Tribe means the same thing.

Purpose

The revival and maintenance of Tribe and Country

Values

It is based on traditional Ngarigo values of caring, sharing, respect, compassion, connection, and inclusiveness. This incorporates       a holistic sense of oneness and interdependence with Country and the Universe and community-based decision making.

Success

Success is measured by the degree of connectedness and vibrational balance, not material possessions

Issues to address in Caring for Country

Bringing  our people home to tribe and Country

Social and emotional well being

Cultural integrity of the tribe

Physical preservation of tribe and Country

Spiritual preservation of tribe and Country

Connecting contemporary to traditional values

 Role as Custodian of Country

The role of the custodian is not reflected simply what is on top of the land and water.

The Ngarigo custodian is part of the land and water and everything above, in and below it, the flora, the fauna, the human population, the seasons, the weather, the rhythm, the maxi and micro, the alpha and omega and the multi-consciousness that pervades everything.

We attract and bond with a conscious energy from the land and water which matches our internal DNA cellular consciousness. Our role is to maintain a rhythm with Country which maintains the well being of all.

Rights and responsibilities with Country

We have the ancestor/creator given right to an intimate relationship with Country that cannot be broken by separation, adversity or occupation.

We have a responsibility to maintain Country according to the desires of our Old Ones, our Ancestors, our Dreaming.

Our Dreaming

The principles which Ngarigo people operate upon in relation to the future of our Country are imbedded in the present, in the Dreaming. The Dreaming is our creation place, the place where Biame, Creation Beings, Ancestors and ourselves interact to maintain the created experience.

Over time the nature of how we look after Country changes as circumstances change and our Ancestors influence us on what Country needs and what Country should be.

The consequences of us not doing it, of being prevented or separated from our traditional role are significant. The impact manifests in the Tribe and in our Country at the same rate and to the same extent.

Tribal Revival

We have a process called Tribal Revival, it is a healing and restorative process which has begun, will take time, but is essential for the survival of the tribe and the Country we have been gifted by Biame.

Opportunities

There is a new energy permeating the planet which is emerging to challenge and heal the destructive energy which has been dominating the planet for the last several hundred years. It is an energy which seeks a balance and partnership with nature, with country, with spirit which has been missing from the industrial, ownership-oriented paradigm of western globalism.

This movement is present in all cultures and is particularly noticeable in First Nations people of Australia. There is a continent-wide movement of grass roots people being empowered by spirit, being made aware of restorative pathways to a connected, healthy, joyful life of well being.

This is reflected in the National model for Mental Health and Social and Emotional Well-being which has emerged in the last ten years as a framework to restore balance in First Nations people. It is the basis of the Tribal Revival movement.

Accessing the internet and communication pathways such as Google and Zoom allow people to communicate regularly across distance, help reconnect back to culture and Country in a way not possible even 5 years ago.

Similarly there is a need for both First Nations and other like-minded people to calibrate a balance between development and environment. New paradigms for managing resources are required and for Ngarigo people, it is reverting to traditional methods of managing resources.

 Threats

Ongoing disrespect for Aboriginal people, a deep sense, particularly at a sub conscious level that we are inferior to the mainstream ‘wheel’ discoverers.

Truth distortion which paints alternative living paradigms such as ours as inferior with no real understanding of what the purpose and lived experience is when one is connected.

Ongoing paternalism in government policy which reflects the deep belief that we are not fully capable, cannot manage our affairs and require ongoing intervention to help us have good lives.

The failure of these policies and attitudes are overwhelmingly obvious, have been identified in numerous reports and reflect the underlying prejudice that exists in the executive and administrative arms of government, the media and as a consequence, the general population.

  The Issue Of Given Back Stolen Land and Waters

The simple answer is no one wants to give them back to us. The history of native title shows this dramatically. Two attempts to stop land and water reclamation by Acts of Parliament, the creation of Native Title where we have to prove that we are Aboriginal, have to prove to government an ongoing connection to land and water when there has been a deliberate government policy of breaking connection for over two hundred years and the ultimate decision makers as to whether you are Aboriginal or not under Native Title is made by white people under a white framework which has fractured us as a collective group with divisions previously unseen.

We need to get our people back home. This is an antithetical move to the Native Title movement. What we want is reconnection, not gammin control over our land and water with no real power to manage it the way we want. We can have it on the condition that many of our people are excluded. This is wrong, not supported by our ancestors and will not survive over time.

For us, if you have Ngarigo DNA, we want to give you the opportunity to reconnect to your tribe, to claim your inheritance.

Bringing them home

Reviving the tribe, finding lost members is a much wider problem that the Stolen Generation which manifested in the twentieth century.  We also have the Hidden Generation from the nineteenth century who were taken from their traditional land and lifestyles in the early days of colonisation.

Summary

• Principles for managing country are embedded in the tribal revival framework which reflects our national mental health and social and emotional wellbeing framework

• We need to take control of our own affairs

• We need to do this with or without government assistance

• We need to set our own rules, our own agenda, our own timeframe and our own principles which will ensure that the life we live, the community we support and the broader society we also live in is underpinned by a movement of well-being, based on connection not acquisition.

• We are custodians already, with or without title and with or without recognition

• Custodian is a holistic responsibility of mind, body and spirit operating to nurture and protect Country for ourselves, our future generations both indigenous and mainstream

• This means we must also be  protecting ourselves, we come from Country, we have a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship, we share the same DNA connection                                                                                                                                                                                  

Establishing and maintaining the integrity of the tribe.

Background

The cause of our confusion over tribal identity, boundaries, lore and protocols to move forward together as neighbours is colonisation. In the ten generations since the arrival of James Cook to this continent a series of catastrophes have occurred:

·        Loss of land

·        Loss of capacity to hunt and provide

·        Loss of access to sacred sites

·        Loss of family through massacres and murder and disease

·        Creation of mission prisons

·        Compulsory bans on language and cultural practices

·        Imposition of foreign religion and putting down of traditional spirituality

·        Deliberately breaking up families

·        Stealing children

·        Introduction of alcohol, drugs and damaging diets

·        Distortion of truthful history of the invasion and occupation of the continent

·        Resistance to reparations of land stolen and wages stolen

The ongoing result of this is intergenerational trauma. We experience it, they ignore it.

Consequences of this trauma include:

·        A sense of guilt by mainstream about what was done to us and a strategy to downplay or deny it

·        Being seen by mainstream as the lowest of the low in society -sometimes paternalistic, sometimes patronising, frequently dismissive of the situation we have been forced into

·        creating within us, a deep gap in knowing who we really are, our core identity

·        a deep sense of loss of our culture and self esteem

·        a lack of confidence and low expectation of what can be achieved in life 

·        a dependence on handouts as little other choices are available to most of us

·         who live on

Current policies and practices of the government suggest this is unlikely to change. There is a:

·        Reluctance to effectively deal with the social determinants which maintain our trauma e.g. deaths in custody; poor housing, poor infrastructure in created communities, inappropriate education systems, false historical record, feeble attempts to create jobs and wealth in artificially created communities (previously government or church run mission/prisons)

·        Introduction of Native title processes designed to divide First Nations Australia. This has been very successful in getting First Nations people fighting each other right across the continent at the most damaging level imaginable, our core identity.

The Way Forward

The first principle to reclaim our identity is for us to own the process.

Currently, we are using a system entirely created and maintained by mainstream. Features of this system include:

·        The concept of tribe – we have been forced into tribal groups that do not reflect our pre-colonial status

·        The naming and designating of the tribes-The Tinsdale Map of languages specifically says it should not be used to determine tribal boundaries, although it gives them and these boundaries are the most used  by everyone.

·        Some groups do not get onto the map at all

·        Some groups have been given tribal status but are seen locally as clans

·        Some groups have been put together and declared nations

·        The boundaries have all been drawn up by mainstream

·        Arguments against these boundaries have virtually no effect to date

·        For native title claims, to be eligible for inclusion, each person must be allocated to a core family. The ultimate decision maker for this is a white person (anthropologist).

·        First Nations people fight over inclusion and spend a huge amount of time denying the claims of others rather than finding lost claimants

·        When denying the identity of others, they are using the mainstream definitions of tribes, tribal boundaries and core families

·        Stolen Identity First Nations people (people who were cut off from family, clan and country in the early waves of invasion during the first 100 years) have little chance to prove connection to country because of accidental and mainly deliberate strategies to hide or deny Aboriginality for the sake of survival.

·        In the second hundred years Stolen Identity First Nations people are called Stolen Generations First Nations people and they have exactly the same problem. Taking children is a practice that is thriving today with a greater percentage of First Nations children being taken off their parents than ever before.

The second principle is we establish our own principles for determining identity,  boundaries and belonging:

·        This is primarily a job for men to protect the integrity of the tribe (it has the right energy)

·        Existing tribal groups are sovereign entities and have the right to make decisions over their own identity

·        Tribal identity is best done in the context of regions. We sit down together and sort out the issues.

·        We design and align with our own dispute resolution process

·        We leave the decision of who represents each tribe to the tribes but encourage an inclusive approach (actively seeking to identify all tribal members) in selecting representatives. Once agreed, these decisions are the ones used by all tribes in all matters relating to the region.

·        We discuss the impact of colonisation on patriarchal and matriarchal lineage, where people are born, traditional relationships and the validity of these relationships now

·        The impact of these and other issues of multiple tribal identities  and share apical ancestors

The third principle is the timeframe these decisions cover is millennial

This means long terms decisions for the future

reviewing tribal identity and boundaries has been a constant process for First Nations people on this continent as tribal groups spread across the landscape

The last ice age was a significant event in which massive redefinitions of boundaries was required as the waters rose and people’s land was lost

The fourth principle is we work with our old people, our ancestors across all lands being considered receiving guidance on what is fair and suitable for all parties involved

The fifth principle is we establish a list of key protocols for assessing identity

·        The Importance of Language

·        The importance of totems and shared spiritual beliefs

·        The importance of skin groups, moieties and traditional intertribal relationships

·        The importance of shared initiations and other ceremonies

·        The clarification of meetings, meeting grounds, fighting grounds, gathering grounds

·        The importance of traditional ways of defining boundaries

·        The importance of Storylines, shared storylines, dreaming stories, shared dreaming stories, dance and shared dances

·        The importance of how preciously insignificant places from a pre-colonial view have become very important in a post colonial view because there are towns, identified resources and potential resources which will benefit identified Traditional Owners

·        The issue of pan-tribal or an Aboriginal nation identity e.g. mountain people, people of the snow, south east regional people ,  

·        The revisiting of core families, who they are , how they were identified, who is being included, who is excluded, the accuracy of the information

Core family 1

Fist contact information

 First photograph

 Birth certificates

 Baptism certificates

 Marriage certificates

 Death certificates

 Trove, newspaper reports

 Colonial reports

 Stories with one verifiable mainstream source

 Stories with two verifiable mainstream sources

 Stories with one verifiable Aboriginal source

 Stories with two  verifiable Aboriginal sources

 Contradictions in stories

Assessing their strengths

 Core Family 2 -repeat process

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