High Ground

I saw a very memorable movie last night that deeply touched my heart like no other recent movie ever had.

While the obvious story of invaders wielding their power and oppression over the original peoples in Australia was clear, there was something else happening in the background that took my breathe away and had me remembering some kind of truth.

It was through the feeling and the unbelieveable beauty of the original people and their synergy with the land that had me mesmerised, their connection with Mother earth and Father sky.

The story takes place in North East Arnhem Land and relates to a Yolngu Boy and his tribe who have lived there for over 40,000 years.

This particular story happened approximately 100 years ago when the British were colonising Australia and taking ownership over the Great Southern Land.

For me the defining moment of this movie is delivered by Jack Thompson who plays the British Colonel over seeing an outback posting where aboriginal massacres have occurred. In the process, a British soldier had been killed and revenge sort.

The aboriginal men gloriously stand before him in there white clay markings contrasting against their midnight ebony skin. They stand proud, natural and “knowing” before the angry uniformed officer.

I paraphrase this as the Colonel says something like “See this crown on my hat, this is the crown of the King and that means I represent him and we own this land. As such this is my country and you have to live under my rules and law. Accordingly we seek justice for you killing one of our soldiers and you must be charged for that.”

The elder quietly yet directly speaks in his language which is interpreted “This is not your country, nor is there any justice, what about the hundreds of families you have slaughtered and the denial of our existence of being here?

The colonel says “We now own this land and it is our system and law that rules. Therefore we seek justice only for our own as we conform to our rules not yours!”

Viewing this exchange was as if these words had formed the beginning of our historical delusion. The wiping out of our original peoples’ rich, natural culture, their wisdom and innate oneness with mother earth, where everything in nature is valued, acknowledged and understood.

So the illusion of power, greed and control took shape and the lands and it’s peoples used to commercialise nature and the creation of ownership, competition, divisiveness and our intellect told the story and put it into history books.

I’m awkward in my recollection, as I’m not an historian, nor an activist…I’m a simple truth seeker and have a huge love, as many do, for mother earth and all beings.

It was the beauty of the aboriginal people that captured my attention. It was like a songline was playing throughout the movie that constantly hit my heart, somehow it was a familiar tune.

The beauty of the land… the dusty pinks, purples and gold of the skies, the red dirt, the speckled gums, the goannas, crocodiles and snakes. The magnificence of the iridescent blue swimming holes against vibrant red jagged rock. The foraging of foods, the mia-mia huts, the cooking fires and the communing under the stars, all out of this world yet of it.

I drank in the visions of beauty and the song, and let myself expand with a memory that was quenching my soul.

It was devastating to feel what had happened, but in the awareness, somehow, beyond words, the sharing of the story may help us to once again align the song line of the truth for all.

Love Jilly