If you like the text and images here, a slide-show 'Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Stolen Waters,' can be also be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBDGPor7g6o
Please remember that these are all subject to copyright. If you wish to copy and share, please seek permission via my email address.
About Me
- Vesper
- Born in Kaurna Lands, living in Ngarrindjeri Country, I consider myself a guest, and hope I don't wear out my welcome. My ancestors began coming to the colony of South Australia in 1939, with Dr next to their name on the ship's list:debtor. The British Industrial Devolution made them economic refugees. I didn't want my offspring to grow up with the lies we were taught in school: that the Kaurna were "extinct" by 1859 or so, but not the Ngarrindjeri because they were more "troublesome." I want to pay my overdue rent, and pay respect for the laws of the many nations of this Land. Instead of a three-tiered system of government, may we do away with the artificial dominion of the States. May we keep the federal administration, and locate local governments within the boundaries and sovereignty of First Nations. In this way, First Peoples attain adequate representation, and governance has an environmental integrity in line with the bio-region movement.
4 comments:
thank you so much for all your information and insight. I just moved to Meningie (i will be teaching at Raukkan this year) and this blog has given me a lot to think about! Amazing.
Thanks, Bon, for your comments!
If the Raukkan folks look after you as well as they have me (down the road), you will have a memorable time here!
As an old chalkie, I envy you! Ngarrindjeri educators have taught me much much more personable, profound, wise, astute, cheeky, hilarious, provocative, compassionate and useful stuff than I've ever learnt in any tertiary institution.
Sometimes the learning has been painful, but only when I've persisted in carrying around my western cultural baggage!
Wishing you well and looking forward to our paths crossing!
hi vesper, i like your blog and what it represents.
however the copyright clause seems at odds with your politics and ethics.
copyright is a subsystem of capitalism, christian-capitalism is what brought ecological degradation and social stratification to this continent in the first place. aboriginal people still suffer accordingly.
aboriginal people pre occupation were foragers, they shared resources. most still have this spirit in their bones. copyright is a system of privatising resources, of private property, something very foreign to aboriginal people.
let's keep the internet the commons it's meant to be: free and uncopyrighted – foraging commons; creative commons!
Thanks Permapoesis for your comments regarding copyright.
Composed in Ngarrindjeri homelands, I feel a sense of responsibility towards these images. This became evident when I found that someone on the other side of the world had copied photos from this blog, had falsely claimed them as his own, and used them in a culturally inappropriate and insensitive way.
Images can carry stories, meanings older than language. They can trigger powerful insights and awaken memories. Composed in Ngarrindjeri homelands, I believe these images deserve respect, rather than misuse.
Indeed, various Ngarrindjeri organizations invoke copyright to protect cultural materials on behalf of their community.
Hmmm, I have never heard Ngarrindjeri educators describe themselves as 'foragers'.
From what I've heard from Ngarrindjeri educators, their people pre-invasion were skilled land managers, food nutritionists, and farming scientists. Their technology, perhaps 40,000 years old, surpasses, in my opinion, that of the foreign occupiers who have in two centuries seriously degraded much of Ngarrindjeri homelands.
The Ngarrindjeri People that I know are indeed very generous. I am very grateful for the experiences we have shared. It is also my understanding that there are some things so culturally significant to the Ngarrindjeri that they are restricted and kept from the public.
So, I stand by my note:
'If you wish to copy and share, please seek permission via my email address'.
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