Comments on: Culture, Genocide, and Whingers

By: Storytelling as the Weaving of the Self « Elhaz Ablaze

Storytelling as the Weaving of the Self « Elhaz Ablaze — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:39:37 +0000

[...] help us to heal the wounds between ‘whites’ and the peoples we have hurt (see Henry’s article Culture, Genocide and Whingers). More generally speaking, such a ‘paradaigm shift’ on a grand scale can help us to heal the [...]

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:25:53 +0000

Thanks guys.

I saw an amazing documentary about Aboriginal dancer and comedian Sean Choolburra yesterday – it should soon be available for viewing online here:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/messagestick/

With leaders like this gentlemen one can have much hope that eventually the colonial wounds might be healed.

Of course part of the reason for the trauma of the stolen generations is not just the damage done to their connection to their Aboriginal heritage but also that we Euros are by and large disconnected from our own heritage and have so little to offer them too!

If you think about it, someone with, say, equal amounts of Indigenous and European heritage should have equal access to the ancestral power of both lines. However Europeans are mostly so alienated from themselves that they cannot offer this to the folk caught between the two cultures.

On this line of reasoning, reconciliation in this country needs to include white Australians recovering their own roots. How else can we meet Aboriginal Australia half way and with respect if we don’t even respect our own heritage? I don’t think it accidental that Christian organisations were so heavily involved in the forced removals of children from their families.

I wonder whether or how in time I might be able to become more involved in the challenge of repairing the damage done…

Here is a direct link to the show with Sean Choolburra… and some powerful words of his:

“I think, not trying to sound too corny or anything like that comedy is the best medicine. And I think our peoples right now need a lot of that. And sometimes we’re angry, we’re angry about this and that, the politics of things and that and the racism and all this and blah, blah, blah. It can create the diseases and depressions and what-not and all the many sicknesses out there. And I think if we can just have a good laugh, just enjoy everything, just shed it all and just sweat it out and laugh, you know, through a good laugh. And you just feel deadly after, you know? You just feel… healed. (LAUGHS)”

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/messagestick/stories/s2539848.htm

By: Matt Anon

Matt Anon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:25:17 +0000

This is an important article. It is such a perspective (among many others) that makes me proud to be part of Elhaz Ablaze. These words had to be written. We, as Heathens (that is, folk looking for our native heritage), have far more in common with such spiritual traditions like that of the Aboriginese, AmerIndians, Tibetans etc. than those of the monotheistic cults. In this way we are far more likely to understand them than Kristjans. I even believe that you Australian Heathens can learn from their magic. However, ultimately I believe that their gods who live in their lands can co-exist with ours, who can also exist there. This is something that a Kristjan – except he’s a mystic – cannot accept. May the Wounds heal!

By: Dan Nahum

Dan Nahum — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:24:57 +0000

Hey, I’ve already said it to you in person but here it is in public – this post is a winner. Nice work.

By: Lonnie

Lonnie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:24:41 +0000

Henry, as usual, you do not disappoint. The insight to this article is powerfully moving. My own Grandmother (father’s mom) was a proud Lakota Sioux woman. She had many tales to share about her life in a white christian community. To her death, she bared a lot of shame and self hatred. I was blessed enough to know some of her true pride before she passed when I was very young.

The rant is brilliant as well. There is a faulty foundation built on what we are not, rather than what we could become.

Thank you again for sharing your mind!

Might I suggest all readers here get a copy of Brendan Myers – The Other Side of Virtue. I’m convinced half way through it it should be required reading for all Pagan minded people, and the theme suits your rant well.

By: Volksfreund

Volksfreund — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:24:24 +0000

It is a fantastic paper that is full of moral courage and philosophical insights. It shows true heathen power! Well done. And thanks for mentioning Tibet!