26/01/2016
There has been much talk about reconciliation with Aboriginal cultures of late, especially today, Australia Day. The discussion isnt' only happening in Australia it is happening in Canada, South America, the United States, and Asia. Traditional owners, once great tribes living in balance with their environment, have found it an uphill struggle to find the respect and appreciation they deserve. They are regularly being discriminated against and considered inferior. We begin to see our native cousins very differently when we look at them in terms of stories.
We all live our lives by stories. They define our thoughts, actions, and feelings. Some of these are religious stories that teach us how to interact with each other; what rules we should live by, like not committing adultery. Others teach us how to use the resources around us, such as stories of engineers, plumbers, electricians, doctors, and scientists. The stories we create tell us how we can use things. They even teach us of our place in the universe to give our lives hope and meaning - such as giving us the promise of an afterlife.
But who has the most functional stories, the Aborigines or modern man?
What do we mean by 'functional story'?
The simplest definition of a functional story is a story - narrative or tale - that helps us meet our basic human needs in a balanced and sustainable way. These are stories that work; they ensure we do what satisfy our hearts, and allow us to flourish in an environment that can nurture and sustain us.
Today we live dysfunctional lives. We live lives that don't meet our most basic of human desires/needs. For example, we often live isolated lives and feel alone. Our relationships are often not as satisfying as we know they should be, especially when we are so pressed for time - we barely talk. And we rarely get together with family and friends any more, often because we are trying to get ahead in the world, to be 'successful'. Along the way we abandon our children to daycares, a place they are not allow to be hugged with affection- a need they don't have met. We abandon our mothers to be alone at home all day with the youngest children, leaving them to go mad with isolation. We send our elders into nursing homes - they then feel unloved, abandoned, and uncared for. All too often we make ourselves depressed by simply not meeting many needs nature wants us to satisfy. As a GP I see it commonly. Depression is on the rise. Too many of us are suffering terribly. What does this tell you about how well our stories are working for us?
In contrast, look back at Aboriginal societies all over the world, especially in Australia, and we find a wealth of rich stories that spoke of how to treat each other and the land, and they worked! Not only did they provide a way to navigate a dry and unforgiving country, they also taught how to prevent social unrest and constant fighting, and how to respect the plants, animals, and land we were part of that sustained us. On Australia Day it is worth remembering Governor Arthur Phillip, when he arrived on the first fleet, did not find a waring people, he found a welcoming brethren. There can be no doubt the Australian Aborigines at the very least had developed amazingly sophisticated and functional stories. How else could they have thrived on an isolated continent for over fifty thousand years and not destroyed it, or wiped themselves out?
We come from a European culture of war and conquest- Europe has been riddled with war for over fifteen hundred years. We seem to think that just because one culture overpowers another it must be the superior culture. Not in this case. Not when we judge its superiority according to the functionality of its stories.
Compared to our Aboriginal cousins we are but naive and ignorant beginners. We are yet to find what they did; functional stories and ways of living that worked - that offered us the depth of human satisfaction we all crave.
When Captain James Cook arrived on these fine shores in 1770 he made a most amazing observation. He wrote in his journal that these people - the Aborigines - were the happiest people he had met. Interestingly, this comment was initially suppressed when he returned home.
If any group has earned the right to feel superior it is the world's Aborigines. It is them we should revere and respect the most, and help them to our very best ability.
We can learn much from our history, and the land that sustains us, about how to satisfy the deep desires inside each of us. By learning from Aboriginal wisdom and stories we can not only help our traditional native cousins feel valued and respected once more but we can also help ourselves find deep, and lasting, life satisfaction. Together we can find the positive future we have all been looking for.
