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12-21-1986 Aboriginal Dreaming Paul Faulstich Pitzer College

Recommended Citation Faulstich, Paul. Aboriginal Dreaming. Earth First! Journal, 7(2): 21, 1986.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Pitzer Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. a year" which still remains beautiful; where the water remains pure as mod­ ern technology disposes of the five mil­ ·ABORIGiNAL'' 'f>REAMING lion gallons of sewage a day. In short, a showcase "where we might live in by Paul Faulstich peace with other creatures." (pp.374-5) PART I It is a risky proposition to try to WITH HAWK WINGS develop a balanced ecological In the Dreaming times we wer·e one. philosophy from the ecol gical condition 0 We were lizard and wild cat, prevailing in highly contrived a situ­ as Rock hole and tree. ation as the National Parks in America We lived ·in the clouds of today, especially Yellowstone or Yose­ 'And deep in the molten earth. mite. Muir and other pioneer environ­ We floated through the sky mentalists sought spiritual insight and With hawk wings , u ecological integration in what was to be­ And glided through the waters come Yosemite and other National As snakes. Parks and then made broad-ranging Today I walked through rny country. prescriptions for changes in the way of life of Americans in general. Chase MY count171. I walked 1.vith the taste ofdust in my makes no such broad prescriptions for mouth. changes in society beyond the bounds I floated through the sky of the Park. Like the reform environ­ With hawk wings, mentalist organizations of today (Sierra . For in ihe Dreaming times Club, Audubon, etc.) which have more membership, money, and political We are one. "clout" than ever before, Chase appar­ ently believes that the Parks, as "natu­ PART II The earth is the ·very substance of ral areas," can exist side by side with an industrial society hell bent on total Australian Aboriginal life. The impor­ tance of the sense of place in Aboriginal environmental destruction. The Central Desert of Australia. To the Aborigines the landscape -is rich with sacred life cannot be·overstressed . An intimate But the conservation/preservation history and tribal traditions. Photo by Paul Faulstich. . know!edge of the.environment and geo­ approach [the Thoreau and Muir ideal graphy was; and still is, imperative to of pristine parks alongside cred acts of ritual and renewal to the e~isting survival within a hunting and gathering will spot a kangaroo or a bush' turkey. civilization] has become a dead issue. events of daily living such as hunting . context. Aboriginal religion is likewise The car is full of shamanistic men all The conditions of the land and wildlife, and gathering. The Dreamtime gives intimately tied to the natural features looking straight down the tire tracks from Muir's time in the late 19th century cultural form and meaning to the land­ of the -landscape. The earth, with its that proceed our tank into the cosmos. to the present, are light-years apart. scape, for every prominent feature of mythological places, animals, air and These people don't "see" animals, they By the 1960s, Ed Abbey was inveighing the land is imbued with a spiritual and soil, is sacred to the Aborigines. smell them, or sense them, or magically against "Industrial Tourism" in the mythological significance. Through sa­ The Aborigines tell of a time when "know" when one is near. As I learned Parks (Desert Solitaire) and calling for cred myth and ritual, the Dreamtime the earth and animals did not yet exist long ago, the faster you go the harder sweeping changes ~ Thoreau and Muir landscape is superimposed over the in their present forms. Mythological it is to know. To know anything takes would be appalled at what the Parks physical landscape, and together they creatures inhabited the landscape, and time. So I floor it across this expanse have become as more and more "visitor create a cosmological totality which ex-· with their supernatural powers they of desert. The red dust billows from be­ regulation" has jammed people into presses the Aborigines' unique and transformed the earth anq created the hind the car forming a dirt curtain that noisy unappealing campgrounds to beautiful relationship with the environ­ features of the landscape ,which exist divides the desert in two. Perhaps we'll make the policing and surveillance ment. today. When they completed their wan­ get through this without the opportu­ easier. The backcountry and "wilder­ In Aboriginal Australia there are two derings they changed into intangible nity to shoot at - to kill - anything. ness" have become so crowded and reg­ distinct yet inseparable views of geo­ spirit beings, and to this day they dwell So I speed over the ruts and anthills ulated that those seeking real solitude graphy; one pertains to the physical in special places within the landscape. toward some mythical place. and a spiritual "wilderness experience" landscape and the other pertains to the In Aboriginal Australia the rifle has are best advised to seek less spectacular This mythological period, known as the symbolic landscape; Through the crea­ Dreamtime, is the foundation of Aborig­ replaced the boomerang and spear, and non-developed areas without any kind tion of sacred spaces the physical geo­ inal religion and philosophy. the automobile has almost replaced of official wilderness designation. Apart graphy of the site is transformed into walking. You often have to travel for 50 from the ideas of Thoreau and Muir, the The notion of a Dreamtime is found a symbolic cosmology that provides a among Aboriginal tribes across Au­ or 60 miles before you spot a turkey or Parks have been established and sup­ link with the spirit world and Dream­ stralia. Generally, Dreaming does not kangaroo. They don't stand much ported by the American people for time events. chance against "civilized" technology. largely anthropocentric and nationalis­ refer to an ordinary dream experience, Totemic associatio.ns provide links be­ but rather it is a metaphysical concept Before the Aborigines were forced into tic reasons - as natural museums to tween the human and the non-human. European ways there was no need to compete with the culture of Europe; as which structures the world and unites Special rocks, trees and water holes all humans with animals, the natural envi­ choose between animals and humans. places to take motorized vacations and have mythological significance. The to­ ronment and supernatural beings. The sides were matched evenly, there "see the scenery," to be amused by the temic association of humans to the land­ there was no winner or loser - just animals, to escape hectic city life tem­ Through the Dreaming, all things are scape expresses a physical and psychic related in a system that links, through players. porarily; for economic reasons to bolster transformation which supplies them Death by spear - that's the way I the income of neighboring towns and mythic and symbolic metaphor, the tem­ with a structured and enduring associ­ poral with the ethereal, the past with would want to go if I were a kangaroo. merchants; and now as international at­ ation. The order and design evidenced the present, and the human with the To feel that hand-hewn stone rip into tractions for tourists from Europe and in the world and realized by the non-human. my flesh. And to be eaten - cut open, Japan. Aborigines is expressed through their The Dreamtime permeates all as­ examined, played with, burned, and Chase does not seem to register dis­ totemic social structure. pects of Aboriginal living, from the sa- consumed. My meat would be used to approval at any of this. Rather, Chase Throughout the world, tribal carry the burden of Aboriginal exis­ conveys the impression that the Parks societies have held in sacred esteem cer­ tence. Perhaps a bone of mine would should continue to accommodate two tain locales within the physical environ­ be cleaned and carried inside the sha­ million people a year sustained by the and fauna live side by side in harmony. ment. In Aboriginal Australia, these man's dilly bag, to be used for its sacred latest sewage technology. While This practice does not separate humans places have been used for the purposes powers when needed. Thoreau said, ''All good things are wild from Nature, nor does it imply' a policy of ritual, shamanism and mythologis- But these days the kangaroos are and free," with Chase's view the Parks of non-interference. It does call, how­ ing. · dying out, victims of the automobile and will consist of highly regulated and ever,.for the larger flow of natural pro­ Across wide geographical and tribal rifle. The Aborigines too are dying out, policed tourists moving among highly cesses to continue uninterrupted. It is boundaries .in Australia, individuals but not because of the automobile or regulated and managed "wild" animals. a deep ecological answer to the issue identify intimately with a specific tract rifle (necessarily). Here there are other The tourists would not live with the ani­ of "man's place in Nature." But this of land, for it was their ancestors who forces at work - ethnocentrism, greed mals any more than I live with the ani­ model cannot be obtained from the con­ created their country. Territory is de­ and power. Ripped from their land, mals when I visit Africa, USA. I am ditions prevailing in the National Parks fined by features of the environment which is their blood and their life, they not clear how this is to serve as a "model now, nor in the immediate future. and the events associated with them. have become strangers in a world that society" for the rest of America. Chase's indictment of NPS politics The topography is brought alive suffocates them. They ai:e hopeless, but We may have to face the fact that the and policies over the years was much through places which articulate physi­ not helpless. "But why should WE help National Parks, as they exist today, can­ needed and valuable. Further, he has cally that which is non-physical, i.e., THEM? We already send them a check not serve as any kind of model in our raised a number of issues which need spiritual and mythic realities. every fortnight; we don't tax them; we search for an ecologically viable society to be seriously pondered by the new The Aboriginal connection to the build them houses which they don't even for humankind. Given the tremendous environmentalists. Maybe, as he earth is symbiotic. Sacred places are take care of; we sell them our alcohol; loss of species and species habitat at suggests, there is no wilderness left in cared for and guarded. Punishments for and write books about them." So you present, the Parks might best serve for America. Maybe it is not possible to re­ disrespect are severe. We should listen hear over and again. the foreseeable future as repositories turn Yellowstone and other National closely to what the Aborigines can teach But the Aborigines, like the kan­ for wild species and habitat. Human vis­ Parks to the status of self-sustaining us. garoos, don't stand much of a chance itation to the Parks would have to be ecosystems. These issues should be against the mining companies and the tailored to fit this top priority of the faced by ecologists and others con­ PART III governments. And yes, I'm on THEIR "wilderness" Parks. Wildlife manage­ cerned with the future of America's wild In the Outback, distance is meaning­ side. I always side with the earth. ment in the Parks would need to be con­ lands. A debate should ensue over the less from a Western perspective. Ask gruent with these aims, while respect­ more cogent issues Chase has raised. an Aborigine from Yuendumu how far Paul Faulstich is an anthropologist ing the integrity of the wildlife and the In this respect, he has served his func­ to Waite Creek and the answer will be who has studied extensively the overall natural processes. Wildlife biol­ tion as a "gadfly." But his distortions "not far, close way ... little way." Get Aborigines of the Australian Central ogists should be overseen by profes­ and exaggerations of the deep ecology in the car and -drive, and drive, and Desert. He is now in HaWaii, where he sional ecologists. Stanford ecologist position have served no positive func­ eventually (maybe) you'll get there. A hopes to see EF ! become active. Paul Ehrlich recently said that "in a tion. And until the questions raised are hundred miles via ungraded dirt road. country like the United States, there resolved in some satisfactory way, we Road!? That's what they call it. A is not the slightest excuse for develop­ must conclude that he has failed to show potholed, washboarded, bulldusted ing one more square inch ofundisturbed that the deep ecology position is either track. A road? A joke. land." (Defenders, Nov/Dec, 1985) Ef­ fundamentally mistaken or unworkable. The trip to Waite Creek might last forts to expand Yellowstone boundaries three hours, depending on how many to halt further development of habitat dozen (so it seems) Aborigines are cram­ in the adjacent areas (as ·with the George Sessions is a professor of med into my Holden HQ Stationwagon, "Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem" pro­ philosophy at Sierra College, co-author and whether or not the journey is con­ posal) should be encouraged. of Deep Ecology, a mountaineer in the sidered by some as a hunting trip. If Contrary to Chase's claims, the biore­ High Sierra with several first ascents, it's a hunting trip I drive fast-70 MPH gional concept is an attempt to reinhabit and is on the cutting edge of the ernerg­ or so. The faster you drive, the less the land wherein humans and the flora ing deep ecological paradigm. likely it is that one of the Aborigines Page 21 Earth First! December 21, 1986