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.
FROM DIAMOND MINE TO GHOST TOWN - THIS IS KOLMANSKOP
If ‘ruin gazing’ is on your bucket list, the ghost town Kolmanskop in southern Namibia is just for you. Once the home of diamond mines and a thriving community, it is now an abandoned area with perfectly preserved houses, that get slowly consumed by the desert sand
Words: Aleksandra Georgieva
Photography: Alfred Quartey, Jean Wimmerlin Aubrey Rose Odom
29 March 2020
Once the home of a thriving community, profiting from diamond mines, Kolmanskop was completely abandoned by the mid-1950s. The ghost town is located in southern Namibia, haunting visitors with the power of time which echoes among the empty desert.
Modern-day travellers seem fascinated with ruins. Broken cities breathe foreign memories calling out to our imagination. Collapsed walls and dusty windows guard the abandoned traces of past lives. For over a millennium ‘ruin gazing’ has applied to enthusiasts, who visit ghost towns for a glimpse into the long-forgotten lives and unknown people’s existence.
Today Kolmanskop is one of the most fascinating locations to visit as the geological forces of the Namibia desert leave visitors walking around traditional Edwardian houses knee-deep in sand. The architecture in the area is completely preserved, although slowly consumed by the sand dunes. This makes Kolmanskop popular among tourists and photographers alike. Yet, once upon a time the ghost town of Namibia unveiled the livelihood of a community that thrived from the area’s natural resources.
“Broken cities breathe foreign memories calling out to our imagination.
Collapsed walls and dusty windows guard the abandoned traces of past lives.”
Travellers can find Kolmanskop around 10 kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It may seem curious that the ghost town was named after a transport driver. During a sandstorm Johnny Coleman was forced to abandon his ox wagon near the settlement, which adopted his name. ‘Kolmanskop’ comes from Afrikaans for Coleman's head.
It was 1908 when a railway worker named Zacharias Lewala found a diamond in the area. After showing it to his supervisor, the German railway inspector August Stauch, it didn’t take long for people to realise how rich the location was in diamonds. German miners settled in the desert area to exploit the field. Soon enough the German Empire declared a large region as a ‘Sperrgebiet’ (restricted area).
“It didn’t take long for people to realise how rich the location was in diamonds.
Soon, German miners settled in the desert area to exploit the field.”
The first diamond miners in Kolmanskop generated enormous wealth. The residents in the area began investing into the development of the town. They focused on German style architecture when building a hospital, school, power station, theatre, ballroom, ice factory, casino, sports hall, skittle-alley and impressively the first x-ray-station in the entire southern hemisphere. The town also had the first tram in Africa, which had a railway connection to the town of Lüderitz.
The industrial incline in the area was impressive and the residents’ wealth seemed everlasting. Unfortunately, there dark times laid ahead. After World War II the diamond field began depleting and by the early 1950s the town was in complete decline. However, in 1928, some 270 km south of Kolmanskop was found the richest diamond-bearing location in the area. After the town’s decline, residents left their homes and possessions behind in a new rush, this time to the south, towards the beach terraces of the Orange River.
It was 1956 when Kolmanskop was ultimately abandoned. Today visitors trace the lives of a once thriving community, whose proof of existence rests among the sand dunes of the Namibia desert. The houses, built in traditional Edwardian style, stand half-swallowed by sandstorms. Still, travelers go – seeking that glimpse into the past lives of strangers long-forgotten, unspoiled and unknown.
Visitors note: today Kolmanskop is a tourist destination, run by the joint firm Namibia-De Beers. If you plan to visit, know that you will need a permit to enter the ghost town.
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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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