Acknowledging Country: Surrendering to the grief of our origins

“We cry for you because you haven’t got the meaning of this country. We have a gift we want to give you. And it’s the gift of pattern thinking. It’s the culture which is the blood of this country, of Aboriginal groups, of the ecology, of the land itself.” – David Mowaljarlai, Ngarinyin elder

As a person of settler descent, I have created this course for those who wish to respond more deeply to the work that First Nations people have asked us to do – Acknowledge Country. I have done so with the support and encouragement of Aboriginal people. They have asked settlers to share the emotional burden that Aboriginal people have been forced to carry, and do the work of sitting with the discomfort of our history.

This work suggests ways to come into right relationship with First Nations people and with Country through honesty, care and deep listening. Only by resting on ethical foundations can spiritual depths be revealed, and co-creative flourishing unfurl.

This Writing Course aims to facilitate opportunities for profound connection to place and history with which to ground your words, enrich your understanding, and to grow your ongoing connections to Country.

The focus will be an exploration of the new Australian ritual of Acknowledging Country that for the last decade or so has taken place at the start of public gatherings. This ritual has emerged at a vital cultural moment, with the growing awareness and acceptance of Australia’s violent conquest history, and greater understanding of the ongoing impacts of colonial culture on both Aboriginal and settler cultures.

“Country” is an Aboriginal English word meaning both the visible and invisible world around us; people, plants, animals, landforms, weather systems, the animate spirit that infuses us all, the stories and the web of relationships between us.

To acknowledge Country, then, is to acknowledge an alive, sensing world. The implications of this are enormous, with the potential to disrupt the de-animated worldview that underpins the colonial paradigm. How might we fruitfully and respectfully engage with this other way of knowing, and learn the responsibilities and connections of deep belonging?

This is work that requires our bravery, but it also rewards that bravery. Because when we sit with grief and shame in a compassionate way within community, it transforms, every time, into love, care and understanding. Holding awareness of the difficult truths of Australia’s history within a deep and honouring circle is profoundly humbling. And not just because we’re doing important emotional work - but because of the depth of the gift of being Welcomed to Country. Alive, listening, responsive earth - not the dead earth that is the false notion behind the extractive, colonial culture. It’s a paradigm shift, shattering and powerful. For me, that aliveness is the most exquisite thing I know.

So how do we properly Acknowledge this precious gift from Aboriginal Australia? This course seeks to take some small and careful steps down that path. It would be wonderful to have you along on the journey.

The work includes somatic writing exercises, sharing of our writing, and discussion.

This work is grounded in learning from Aboriginal and Indigenous people, including inspiration and encouragement from Tyson Yunkaporta, Yin Paradies, Jack Mitchell, Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, Ian Hunter, and Joy Murphy Wandin.

The course in detail:

This workshop has emerged after a long slow percolation of two things said to me, more than once, by Aboriginal people. The first, a question - what happened to you that you would do this to us? The second, a statement - we’re ok, it’s you lot that have the problems - go and work on yourselves.

I have felt the importance and truth of these words, and have sought to create a space where we can, in groups, sincerely and deeply investigate them. We do this through the help and guidance of the eldership of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous thinkers whose work I have collated.

This work is not instead of, or meaning to supplant, the wisdom and guidance of local Aboriginal people - that is an irreplaceable and essential part of our learning, and a gift to honour. My work is offered in the hope that, through deepening our historical and contextual understanding and emotionally processing the grief of our history, we have more space to allow new learning. That we may better understand the greatness of the gift that is a Welcome to Country, so as to offer a more heartfelt Acknowledgement of the gift.

What, also, does it mean to feel we have a deep spiritual connection with land that has been stolen? How do we reconcile with this moral confusion? These are some of the questions that we let ourselves be guided by, on the way to a more just and compassionate Australian culture.

Content includes:

Returning to the Roots: The European tradition: including Goethe, Jung, and the deep and hidden history of faerie, otherwise known as nature connection.

Re-enchantment: tradition and the power of the spoken word.

Rooting in Ancient Earth: The Aboriginal tradition. The Gift, the meaning of Country, Dreaming and Dadirri, (Deep Listening).

Speaking your words: a whole group sharing of experiences and acknowledgements.

This course was first developed for the Jung Society of Melbourne, and so the thinking of Carl Jung underpins the approach. As both therapist and cultural agent Jung held space for difficult questions and saw the deeply personal as necessary for cultural and political transformation. He brought awareness of the archetypal realm (pattern thinking) and of Anima Mundi – the soulfulness and animacy of earth.In the spirit of Jungian processes, the investigation will take a depth psychological approach to researching and creating your own Acknowledgement of Country. We will be using a tool Jung developed, Active Imagination, to sense and dialogue with the idea of Country. You will be invited to deeply, personally, and somatically engage in the practice of Acknowledging Country through invocation – speaking aloud to animate Country, and listening for words that feel true and real.

Testimonials

Maya Ward is receiving queries from settlers asking how to come back into the spirit of place in rigorous and respectful ways that are not in extractive relation, not overstepping or appropriating. It is a space of nuance and intense discomfort and danger, but it is generative. - Tyson Yunkaporta

The workshop was a deep enquiry into what it is to be with our ‘settler peoples’ shame, and to allow that to transform into a frame of respect, responsibility and reciprocity. - Luna White

This work isn’t linear, rather it develops, in layers and whirls, in our psyche. Maya helped us uncover, nourish and develop wondrous shoots and flowers of new awareness. She held a delicate space with humour and honesty and vulnerability. I’m very grateful. - Noni Turner

Maya’s workshop was a rare and rich opportunity to engage with those parts of ourselves that usually linger timidly in the shadows. It was a safe place for all to take some brave steps on the path to accepting our legacy as settler-culture Australians. I am very grateful to Maya and my co-participants for undertaking this challenging and essential collective soul-work. - Sean Kavanagh

It was a privilege to journey through this complex terrain with such a skilled and humble teacher as Maya. Offering a vast array of personal research, experience and diverse resources, she also brought courage, curiosity and a willingness to continue her own learning. The space was held with love and care, and in the final sharing it was clear that all the participants had really grasped new ways of understanding what is really meant by the living, breathing term 'Country'. - Emily Coats

Dates are July 9/10 10.30-4.30

Price for the two day course is $250/$190 concession.

This course pays the rent.