CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
BOOKS THAT REDEFINE CULTURAL IDENTIFICATION
This is our editors’ pick of best books that spin the concept of class and cultural identification around to show you the world from a more grounded and hyper realistic point of view
Words: Emily Georgieva
Photography: Sincerely Media
22 March 2020
There are hundreds of books out there, but the good ones are those that you know you’ll come back to and reread after some time has passed so you can see the story from a different point of view. We learn something new from each of those books we read, and our team wanted to suggest some of our top-pick intriguing reads to help you get through these times of self-isolation.
We take a look at the novels that follow the topics of class and culture and let them shape the stories of the protagonists. Pick your journey – from the land of opportunity that is USA to the ice-cold debris of Russia; from the little-known territories of Vietnam, to the borders of Mexico and America those are the books that redefine the meaning of cultural identification and we couldn’t put them down.
OUR EDITORS' PICK OF BOOKS THAT WILL REDEFINE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT CULTURE
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
A masterpiece…. This is how this book has been described since it was published for the first time in 1952 and this is the word that seems to define it best all those years later. Although it was published nearly seventy years ago, the book still resonates today with the same power. The writing reshapes the way a novel is perceived and structured. Ellison gives a peak into the American reality for black men and the journey he takes us one is one that changed literature forever. As the protagonists faces challenges that are almost impossible to imagine, the reader gets to connect to a world that is a parallel to what America still seams to be.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Meet Little Dog. He is the speaker in this story. When he’s in his late twenties, he takes a look at his life from a distanced point of view. The story seems to go on beyond personal level, as it seems more elegant, more complex and real. Little Dog writes to his mother, who cannot read and reflects on a story about his family that began in Vietnam before he was born. The book is a niche exploration of masculinity, class and race and goes to show an incredible strength – one that the speaker must have to tell his story in all honesty in every traumatic, inspiring and memorable detail that he had lived through. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a book you must re-read in your lifetime.
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillphs
Set in Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, on the shoreline of the north-eastern edge of Russia we follow the story of two sisters that go missing. The book is an astonishing emotional rollercoaster. The characters are drawn together by one event that will change their life for good. From the majestic volcanoes, to the embrace of the tundra and the icy seas that border Japan and Alaska, the path this story follows will introduce a different side of Russia as represented by the characters and their story.
Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Austine
This captivating collection of stories explores the belonging to a homeland, the relationship between mothers and daughters and the power of friendships. There are four stories in total: "Sugar Babies", “Any Further West”, "Tomi" and “Sabrina & Corina”. Each one follows the life of Latinas of Indigenous descent living in the American West of Denver, Colorado. As they go through life and learn how to deal with a set of challenges such as abandoning, belonging and search of freedom, the characters teach us not just about heir cultural ancestry, but also paint a engaging picture of the place they belong to.
The book is a finalist for The Short Story Prize, finalist for The Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and a finalist for The National Book Award finalist.
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
An entire generation is represented in this brilliant read. Published three decades ago, the book still captures the essence of the American life today. The story is set in the late 1960’s in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the Mojave Desert. Maria Wyeth, a Hollywood actress, struggles to understand the society she’s part of. A place set in crisis with superficial values, a woman who is supposed to represent its ideals and the American Dream lived in a way that leaves the readers feeling haunted, this novel is a must-read.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
This Booker Prize-winning novel will leave you thinking about it for a long time after you put it down. The storyline follows the life of 12, mostly women of colour in the UK across few decades. During this time, each of them is on the hunt to find what is most meaningful to them. This touching story reveals around the complexity of womanhood and what it means to be a woman living in the UK at those times.
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
The novel resonates with recent cultural shifts forced by factors of economy, class and division. The two-time NBCC Finalist sets her book around the storyline around the immigration crisis at the southwestern Mexican-American border. A family drives from Virginia to Tennessee, across Oklahoma and Texas. Their destination – Apacheria. They are trying to reach this place, their home, as they are “the last of something”. But the ongoing immigration crisis in the country turns the direction of their journey. This vulnerable story is deafening because it shows the reality we live in – a world where children have been separated from their parents at a border of a country that is not their own. Inspired by true events, the book is not only impactful because of the storyline, but also because the empathy of the writing is unforgettable.
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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