4 minute read
Sacred Sites - Alchemy
Informed Consent on Ngaluma Country Part II
By Freya Savitri Sampson
The process of healing requires that the underlying cause of the dis-ease or in-jury to be addressed. It’s often unpleasant and painful facing the core emotional trauma, avoiding it is worse. Once honestly looked at, joy and wellbeing found are on the other side. Paradigm Shock
I was 14 when the first available unit in Western Australia in Aboriginal studies was offered at my high school.
Mrs Brockman was my teacher. I didn’t realise until many years later that the Brockmans are a well-known Aboriginal family in WA. Although it remains unconfirmed, I intuit my teacher is part of that family.
The 40-minute duration of the first class, completely changed the trajectory of my life. Edifying me to some of the horrific truth of Australia’s suppressed, shameful past. Families herded like cattle, their babies thrown in the air and caught on bayonets by soldiers. Men’s testicles cut off, their wives and children watching as they ran, screaming until they bled to death. Their heads then severed from their bodies and kicked around like soccer balls. The truth of Mrs Brockman’s words rang in my soul, burned in my consciousness and etched in my heart. There was no malice nor anger in how she communicated this information, though it was clear there was pain. Everything she
communicated confirmed an intangible awareness within my being; that the relative peace I’d grown up experiencing in Australia, was a facade.
A Stranger in a Strange Land
I was in shock, so deeply affected by the atrocities, which played as clear as a movie in my mind’s eye. I could see and feel it. I wept, mourning the loss of every one of those people like they were my own family. I felt sacred rage, the kind of rage that even an ocean could not extinguish. The lies and utter nonsense that I had been fed all of my life! That night, over the evening meal I told my parents what I had learned, they said it wasn’t true, and point black refused to even consider it. Another defining moment - how very deeply this lie had been buried. I saw the world very, very differently after that day. Shock became full blown paradigm shock, as my mind struggled to comprehend the ramifications of the systematic deceit and brainwashing of the Australian and global population. I thought about the generations of children, many who were now the indoctrinated parents of children being programed to believe lies and I wondered how would we ever heal from this? I couldn’t help by wonder... how many other lies and deceptions had corporate governance been perpetrating
and for how long? Then self-loathing set in - I hated my white skin with the debt it carried, and I felt powerless. Somewhere in all of this I made a promise to myself to be part of the change. To, like my
teacher Mrs Brockman, speak the truth about what had been swept under the national carpet and to contribute to the healing process, and this is what ultimately led me to Roebourne a decade later.
Obstacles and Challenges
Janet and Monica had for years been dedicated to affecting change in the Roebourne community. It was no small feat and I take my hat off to them and all those who have contributed over the years.
There were a number of major issues that they brought to my attention from the outset.
Addiction - primarily alcohol, poor living conditions, homelessness - people living at the rubbish dump, disabilities caused by coupling too closely in the gene pool, abuse - child and DV, literacy/numeracy, money management, hunger/ malnutrition, identification - many had none and prison offender repetition rates. There were so many compound issues that had arisen from the initial trauma - call it ‘invasion or settlement’ regardless, systematic genocide is the core wound.
I visited the Cheeditha Community with Monica one day, who had pre-warned me. I came with an open heart and mind, leaving any judgment or expectation that may have been lurking in my subconscious behind. There were families of five or more living from a single person’s unemployment benefit, in conditions that most westerners would consider barely inhabitable. No widows, they had all been broken. The doors and furniture mostly burned for firewood. Things in disrepair, exposed to the elements. As I walked through the community my eyes opened to how different our cultural values systems were. To just how ridiculous and soulless the Wadjela way of life was for many people here and why the service of reinstating cultural pride through art was so vitally important to build a bridge for people to cross, to find hope and meaning in life once more.
To be continued...
Freya is available for Crystal Dreaming, The Liquid Crystals and a range of holistic services.
Image Credit: Pixabay, Battye Library Ch Powell Collection, Dept Aboriginal Sites
