I was at the National Museum of Australia today. I saw an exhibition called Great Southern Land, which was a very sensitive exploration of the Australian continent and the natural, cultural and technological processes which have shaped our environment for these 3 billion or so years (and more recently over the past 65,000 years).
The exhibition is so moving because it provides an excellent perspective of the vulnerability of life on planet Earth in 2023 and beyond. It also talks to a better understanding of how we can move forward together to weather the impacts of climate change.
The exhibition further opened my mind to the perspectives of First Nations people, the rich understandings they have of this great Southern land, and their deep respect for all species who live here. First Nations people consider the animals in their communities actual kin, or part of their family. This made me think about the careless way that we westerners treat animals, as our slaves in comparison.
First Nations deep respect for what our natural world or Country is trying to tell us is very illuminating. It leads me to really ask how we can better connect with our natural environments and learn from the heritage of the concept of Country. I would love to see us open our arms to embrace this deep, relevant knowledge.
Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common and nothing really seems to change. We (western) humans are not so great at collectively taking a long term and wide angle view. (Or at least collectively ACTING on the evidence). We literally move like a glacier. For this reason (and others), I feel like a First Nations voice to parliament is actually in all of our best interests.
The Great Southern Land exhibition at the National Museum of Australia asked questions about how we can learn from some of the more resilient species in our environment in order to try to adapt to climate change. (Via architectural design and behavioural flexibility for example) It also suggested that we are all being now called to listen to Country. If this means being more conscious of what our environment is trying to tell us, or being more sensitive to its needs, then that would be ideal.
Changing the constitution to allow for a First Nations voice to parliament may actually help us to better do this and to learn from the 65,000 years of knowledge that First Nations people hold about our Great Southern Land. For this reason among others, I feel like it is a very good idea.
I will be voting YES on October 14th. It might be our only opportunity in a generation to give a voice to the oldest living culture on Earth. I very much want to ensure they First Nations Australians are heard.