Aboriginal Healing,
Sharing Culture |
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"Thank you for feeling our pain and hearing our voice and hearing the calls of our cries... I am most honoured to be heard by you and feel grateful and thankful for our connection."
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Dear David,
It is with great respect that I write to you. I heard about your work with ‘Sharing Culture’ and I feel honoured to be able to share some of my stories and perspectives with you. I have always longed for my culture to be known to the rest of the world. I hope that in your way you might support us to allow others to hear about the lives, the culture and the many stories of Indigenous People in Australia. In hearing and knowing what is happening in north WA in communities such as One Arm Point it breaks my heart. I feel deeply sad when I hear what is happening to the people there. As we have been told that the government now has started the removal of Indigenous People (Elders, families, men, women, children) from their communities in to small townships and cities. My deepest concern is that this will totally destroy their spirit and I think of my Elders and the children in the homelands of my community. When Indigenous Peoples live on the homelands, which are similar to small villages, they lives in connection with the land. When they move off the homelands, they don’t have a connection with the ways of the western world and they have no means for survival. For an Elder to leave his or her homeland is like taking away the most valuable possession of their life, that they’ve held on to and cared for since the beginning of time. For an Elder to be removed and put in a town or city will mean much fretting over their land and finally end up losing their spirit and will to live and they will surely pass away. For the children, they will be in an environment without listening to their language being spoken and trying in every possible way to adapt to their environment, this will cause them to become sick spiritually, emotionally and physically. A lot of their wellbeing is dependent on their connection with their lands. Thank you for feeling our pain and hearing our voice and hearing the calls of our cries. We hope that if we work together, maybe more people will hear and understand this is a crime against humanity. This is a repeat of the traumatic history of Australia. I am most honoured to be heard by you and feel grateful and thankful for our connection. Yours faithfully Miliwanga Wurrben 30th March 2015 >> Voices' Collaborators |