Connecting through Country
Yarra Yarra and Yorta Yorta man Andrew Peters urges people during Reconciliation Week to take a moment to acknowledge the Country on which you live and work.
The Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies at Swinburne University says the notion of connection to Country is important to Indigenous groups the world over and the broader community.
“It's important for us all to understand that we share this land just like our ancestors did,” he says.
“We need to understand that notion of sharing and to do so we need to feel connected to it. An easy way to connect with Aboriginal culture is just to acknowledge the Country that you're on.”
Council acknowledges that we are on the traditional land of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
“I often like to do Acknowledgements to Country when I'm at events, or encourage other people to do them … not to make people feel not welcome to the land or make it feel like it's not their land or it's not their home but just to acknowledge what came before us,” Andrew says.
“For thousands and thousands of years, we had elders and ancestors who carried on traditions, who revered the land, who were connected to it, who understood how important that connection was and that was their survival.
“We've built a whole lot of things on top of the land but the spirit and the knowledge that is contained in that land is still there underneath and we just need to find little places where we can connect to it, to touch it, to feel it, to hear the noises of our Country. And if people can do that every day, they'll start to feel more connected to it.”
Andrew says Knox is fortunate to have many different spaces where we can connect, like waterways that were “the lifeblood for Aboriginal people’ or treed areas with, for example, the manna gum that is the “spiritual symbol of the Wurundjeri people”.
“We often walk on concrete paths and things but it's okay to walk on the grass every now and then and just feel the ground beneath you and connect with that culture,” Andrew says.
“I think through COVID we saw how important connecting with nature is for all human beings. It's just another way for us all, I think, to connect not only with that, but with our local Indigenous history.”
You can look up your address online to discover which traditional lands you live or work on.
What's happening
