Healing
'And to whoever of you who come here to my land to learn
'Yes, our life together, white and black, my people, is fine, no problems.
Spread out the sheet for sitting. Tomorrow you will go back, and others will come.
This law (at Garma) says we won't chase you away saying "shoo shoo shoo shoo,
this is ours alone," no, "come come come come, sit here."
This is the law.
Then you learn, when you really learn.
Don't learn and then go wrong, or you will get sick and die, like that.'
from: Djalu' Gurruwiwi, Garma Statement 2002, Gulkula, Northeast Arnhem Land...
www.yirrkala.com <<< click
Motj and the Nature of the Sacred | Cultural Survival<<<
"There are words in Yolngu-Matha for Allah, for a Christ-like father figure, and for a heavenly paradise above, all drawn from long contacts with Islamic traders from eastern Indonesia, but according to Burrumarra, only one word refers to sacred as the source of all life. What supernatural entity or entities allow "a tree to take water inside itself from the leaves and roots and to flourish?" "We know this is where the tree gets its water but we don’t see it happening. We only hear about it. Motj is the water of life. It is our word for God...."
from: www.culturalsurvival.org
Elcho Island, David Burrumarra with Ian S. McIntosh, 1989
CSQ Issue: 26.2 (Summer 2002) Nurturing the Sacred in Aboriginal Australia
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" Two forces seemed to be contending; their techniques always shifting and escalating in fluid adaptation to new circumstances.
On one side were the “Marrnggitj” – figures of seniority, able to comfort and to heal. On the other were the shadowy “Galkas” – responsible for all deaths and sicknesses, sowing terror and anguish in every heart. " From: Nicolas Rothwell; The Australian, May 07, 2010 >>>Click ___________________________
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THE TWO-EDGED CYBERSWORD: HOW SPEED AND REACH ARE AFFECTING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLDby C Kampf -
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WITITJ AMSTERDAM
GALPU STYLE HEALING
AN INTRODUCTION
I met Djalu Gurruwiwi, one of the senior elders of the NE Arnhem Land Galpu clan, in November 2001.
Over the last decade Djalu has become world renowned as the grandmaster of the yirdaki (the original 'didgeridoo') and all this entails.
He is known internationally as a spiritual leadsman and healer, mostly through teaching the art of yirdaki to Westerners.
In 2002, after sixteen years in Australia and one year after my meeting with Djalu I returned to Holland, to my hometown Amsterdam. ...
To some traditionalists, any Yolngu teaching by a non-Yolngu may seem inappropriate. So. Responsibility for representing, sharing and maintaining Yolngu culture was entrusted to me through initiation by the men of Galpu clan, Elders and custodians. As was the experience and honour of being made Wititj custodian and ambassador for Aboriginal Australia in its broadest sense.
It is through projects in the city of Amsterdam and promoting Yolngu (reconciliation) ceremony that 'we', aboriginal 'balanda', play a crucial role in better understanding Yolngu civilization and what it is not.
If people look well enough, it shows new visions for the future. For those people interested in such visions, a place where Wititj healing occurs is but one of five sacred elements in Yolngu culture.
Six years ago I found such a place in the west of Amsterdam, at an old farmhouse called 'Ons Genoegen', which means 'Our Pleasure' in the Dutch language. ...
... People feeling involved with what this project can offer in such fields as healing, reconciliation, cross-cultural understanding, self-expression and even leadership?
In a sense, Yolngu cultural business means education in all of these and more. However, this story is happening in Amsterdam instead of Australia - and in recognizing farmhouse Ons Genoegen for the Wititj Sacred Site it has become.
Mindful of Yolngu tradition and philosophy, please understand that Wititj-healing at 'Ons Genoegen' is not taking place in a way that we in the West are commonly used to. So trust your own experience, insights and your own interpretation.
All depends on what it is that needs to be learned.
Cor van Keuk; Wititj custodian
Amsterdam, 27 januari 2009
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CIVILIZATION
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Garrkuluk
"Ancestors, magic, and exchange in Yolngu doctrines: extensions of the person in time and space
The article draws on the association drawn by Munn between Aboriginal ancestral transformations and the moral order, and the theory of partible persons, in order to re-examine Yolngu doctrines and related practices to do with totemic ancestors and their traces, magic and sorcery, and exchange. It argues that all three broad domains draw on beliefs about intrinsic relations between part and whole, image and object, and the intrinsic powers of bodily substance and spirits of the dead.
These domains imply the extension of persons in time and space, and each relates to a rather distinct aspect of the moral-political order. The article shows that the strong dichotomy drawn by Durkheim and his followers between 'religion' and 'magic' obscures the connections between these domains, and neglects the instrumental aspect of Yolngu ancestral doctrines and practices. "
Sources: Ian Keen 1 , 1 Australian National University, Correspondence to School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Faculties,
Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub • View topic - Ancestors
iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub • View topic - Ancestors ...
garrkuluk clean. [from: A Tribute to : BEULAH LOWE (Linguist, Teacher, Missionary and Friend)]
Ian.Keen@anu.edu.au Copyright Royal Anthropological Institute 2006; ABSTRACT
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