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Feature Story: The Paradigm Shift of Community
The Paradigm Shift of Community
Respected Elder Dr Noel Nannup
by Freya Sampson, Custodian Eartheart
A paradigm shift occurs within one’s consciousness, when sitting and communing with respected Elder, Dr (Uncle) Noel Nannup. It is an almost imperceptible experience, as you listen to him share his life’s journey. One’s concept of community, and the importance of it, becomes an experience that is felt and known within the heart.
As I listened, Uncle Noel stated that, “The question we need to consider is, what is it about the quantum world that gives it, its distinctively counterintuitive quantum flavour?”
He went on to say, “In a world that relies upon the ability to scientifically prove the inner workings and processes of things, the quantum field itself cannot be measured, weighed, quantified or defined. When we come to understand this and tease out that concept, we find out and realise, that it is a force, it is spirit itself. I’m bold enough to say that now.”
Through spending time in nature with him, at some point it dawns on you - you realise that you are experiencing your own oneness with nature, with all of life. Somehow, he has gotten your mind out of the way. You are in such presence and flow that you become this experience of oneness. It happens easily, without any thought or effort at all, and you perceive - with all of your senses - that there is nothing more natural or normal than this experience of being oneness.
This is the simple yet profound message delivered by Uncle Noel. Community is not only about relationships between people, it is the relationship between people and nature, in all of its forms.
The human mind struggles to makes sense of this, because in a westernised world, we are taught in most schools a philosophy that has a system of values based upon scientific measurement and, of course, economics.
Our society’s systems are set up to create more people educated in this way - and to function within a paradigm in which one gets a qualification, then gets a job to earn money to buy material things. This is the way we are taught that we will be secure in life, providing we follow that path.
The profound difference that strikes me in Uncle Noel’s sharing is that he speaks of the relationship between people and nature as one of custodianship, and that, within this relationship when tended to, ushers forth an inner wellspring of innate security.
“At some point it dawns on you… you realise that you are experiencing your oneness with nature, with all of life.”
To truly comprehend, we need to consider what it really means to be a custodian and how that custodianship translates in relationship. A custodian is someone who has been entrusted with the care of something. Therefore, that someone then has the responsibility to consider what is in the best interest of that something and then take the actions that align with that purpose.
The very first story of creation, from the Wadjak Noongar people of the Perth regions of WA, speaks of this concept. In the beginning, when all of the world was created and came into being, the Great Spirit gave the Earth into the care of humanity. Hence the name of that creation story, ‘The Carers of Everything.’
We, as humanity, have so many different cultural perspectives on how things are and ‘should’ be. These are all really constructs in our individual minds.
Uncle Noel described it perfectly when he said, “We have to know what that ‘culture’ is. Culture is not what your hands pick up and move, culture is what moves your hand.” To paraphrase, culture is the intention and purpose, driving one to action. “Therefore, you need to know what is in their mind, the thinking, the understanding.”
As we spoke, it became apparent that the tricky thing about the mind is that it does not feel, it does not know. It is the ego that thinks it knows - this is the same for every one of us.
Our mind is not the place from which we intuit, nor the place from which we know or have gut feelings - that comes from our spirit. The mind is a container that we, our families, schools and the media etc, fill with beliefs and programs. Each mind has different content and each person’s ego is attached to the beliefs within their mind. This is how we have been trained to measure our world, including our personal identity, our sense of security, place and self-worth. Most of it is unconscious.
In reflecting upon Noel’s wisdom, I began to perceive that which he is alluding to; the one thing which unites all of us is nature and our relationship with it. The condition of nature, therefore, is the mirror in which we can look to see the condition of, the contents of, the minds of humanity.
This becomes the measure upon which we can see how we are doing in our role as custodians of the Earth and nature and as ‘the carers of everything’.
This is where Noel is leading us - to reflect upon how is it that one is personally relating to nature and all of life. Nature is the elements of creation, of which there are five: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Aether (Spirit).
Nature is the plants, the animals, the insects, the wind, the fire, the sunshine and rain, the microscopic organisms and the fungi.
