I know you have been hearing me bang on for years about how important our connection to Mother Nature is for our spiritual, emotional, mental and physical well-being… it IS why I love to hike… you are in the fresh air, breathing in deep… you are grounded… you are focusing on putting one foot in front of the other… mindfulness and Being right there… so good for the soul…and then you are treated with beauty at every turn and up every hill.
And so this I intuitively get… and I notice that I crave a Mother Nature hit regularly and listen to that.
So, this time to feed that craving, to satisfy that calling we did the trip to our Red Center… a place that really does feel like the ‘heart space’ of our country.
And then to spend a couple of hours with our traditional owners of the land out in the Kings canyon area… the Karrke people…
What an experience… such a fabulous opportunity to go deeper into our beautiful country guided by Peter, such a gentle, caring man with a depth of passion for their culture, our culture. Through his eyes, through his stories and through his passion for his country I was suddenly feeling like instead of looking at AT our country I was IN our country.
To hear, see and feel their depth of connection with this beautiful land gives you a whole new respect for the country we live in and the people in it. To be educated on our history, our culture… from the way the land supported them and they way they supported and respected their land. To feel the respect they have for Mother Nature and be educated in everything from how the land supports them in their survival and has done for thousands of years, to their art work, their stories and the learning’s that are past down through generations, well it was truly inspiring.
So much for us to learn from our traditional owners and below is a summary about what we learnt from the Karrke people, written by my amazing friend Kathy Petersen who we shared the experience with… she took much better notes than me!
Some amazing facts –
1. Witchetty grubs taste different depending on which type of tree root they’re found in. They taste like butter popcorn marshmallow!
2. Central Aust aboriginals do not use didgeridoos for ceremony, rather clapsticks.
3. Central Aust do not have returning boomerangs!
4. The Karrke do a daily ritual and smudging to keep visitors to Kings Canyon safe on their walk.
5. Each woman has her own seed grinding stones which no one else uses out of respect. She may have several in different food locations. When she dies her stones are then smashed.
6. To connect to ancestors they tap the ground.
7. For everything that can kill you, there is bush medicine within the vacinity to save you.
8. WOMAN’S INTUITION is EVERYTHING!!!
