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.
DRAWING A LINE AT ULURU, AUSTRALIA
Here is what setting a boundary and banning tourists from climbing Uluru teaches us about the importance of valuing a sacred place
Central Australia is a home of the Anangu people, who live by traditions established by their ancestors, who have walked the same lands over several centuries ago. This part of Australia, like many other places around the island country, is sacred and holds a deep spiritual meaning to the locals. The land and everything it gives birth to exist in harmony. Every tree, every rock and pebble along the way are part of something bigger, of a land that means everything to the Anangu people. Uluru is just one fraction of it all but represents to a certain extend the believe system of the Anangu people.
Although they have lived there for over 40,000 years, the Anangu people have only been recognised as the official owners of this land in Australia back in 1979. They have come a long way to prove their views and fight for their land. Uluru has a huge sentimental value to the locals and exists as a form of monument honouring everything sacred that sourced life into the land nearby. Unfortunately, for a long time Uluru had been open for tourists and despite the signs in several different languages appealing for the rock not to be climbed, many visitors have tried to make their way to the top.
On Saturday, 26th October 2019, Uluru officially banned all climbing activities. This is the result of many local people's efforts to protect their land and keep the monument, which has existed for centuries, safe. A few years ago, the board of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park voted unanimously to prohibit climbing the track because of the spiritual significance of the site. Many people made their way to Australian Outback to climb Uluru one last time before the track was closed. As soon as the ban was officially in place, the locals were thrilled and celebrated the result of their long-lasted efforts.
THE TALES OF ULURU
The Indigenous Australians take this very personally and describe the site as 'their church'. In the past when asked by journalists about the significance of the site, the Anagu people have emphasised on the many sacred stories that originate from the place. Some of those stories, they insist are too sacred to share.
They believe that at the beginning of time everything was shapeless and then ancestral beings that originated from the land created every living thing. Some of the stories that are being passed throughout generations is the tale of Lungkata, a blue-tongue lizard, who stole from Emu. When Emu followed him to his cave in Uluru the lizard ignored him and Emu set a fire. Before Lungkata could escape, he got trapped in the burning cave.
Another legend tells the story of Kuniya. She was a woman python, who lived in the rock and had to fight Liru - a poisonous snake - so she could protect her nephew. Those stories are being shared with kids and non-Indigenous people in an effort to make them understand what Uluru means to the locals.
SETTING A BOUNDARY
When people climb the track, they don't just hike another rocky monument - this means a lot more to the Anangu people. They tell stories of a time when ancestral Mala men used to climb that same track all the way to the top. This signifies for the path's multilayered cultural significance. This is not just another pretty rock that is there for the enthusiasts of the outdoor. Uluru is the home of the Anagu people, their house, their church and everything in between.
Closing the rock for tourists was an important step in establishing a sense of much needed respect towards places that people value as sacred. Protecting a land from being harmed should be a common practice everywhere but keeping safe a site that has a spiritual value even more so.
Prohibiting all climbing activities at Uluru is an important step on the path to make tourism in the area more ethical and tourists culturally aware. Visiting a place and admiring the beauty of nature feeds every adventurer's curiosity, but it is crucial to remember that sometimes there are boundaries, which should never be crossed, even if there isn't a sign that prohibits you to do so.
Indigenous Australians are known to have a very deep and powerful connection with the land. It has been and still is a source for a lot of things for them and as such it needs to be treated with respect. We urge our nomadic community to travel cautiously and become familiar with the spiritual significance of places before you visit them. The Anangu people have called out tourists on their poor cultural awareness, stating that they have no respect for the land. This rule to ban the climbing activities is a long-waited one but we believe that travellers' values have changed. We, as an active travel community, are becoming more aware of what privilege it is to travel freely and therefore the easy access to learn more about a place before we even step foot there gives us the chance to be responsible for our actions. Next time you are about to visit a place that you are not sure whether it is a sacred land or not, try to find out more information before you enter the land.
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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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