12:10 a.m. - 2002-10-19
Walkabout
I'm reading "Mutant Message Down Under" by Marlo Morgan.
It's a book about the tribal practices of the aborigines in Australia. Her descriptions of community behavior are consistent with a number of other studies that have been written by anthropologists and adventurers who have spent time with Australia's Fisrt Nations people. The narrative of the author's walkabout is similar to one written by Lynn Andrews some years ago. Moreover, the beliefs and world views expressed are very similar to those held by the First Nations people of North America; be it the Hopi described by Frank Watters, in the Teachings of Black Elk of the Sioux Nation, or the tales woven by Tony Hillerman around the Navajo culture.
Closer to home, one of my friends of about 15 years is a Metis medicine person. Her roots are in the Cree and Sioux tribes through the female side of her family, while her Grandfather was from Scotland. We were introduced by a mutual friend because I was looking for someone credible to teach me more about the aboriginal faith system and their healing methods, while my friend was looking for someone who could teach her about Eastern faiths and healing practices. I had studied those since my early teens as a part of a major quest to understand the nature of the divine. There are also a lot of similarities between some of those faith systems, i.e. Tibetan Buddhism, and native beliefs that made the trade very rewarding for both of us in totally unexpected ways.
Over time we have taught each other what we could. Mutual support in our daily lives also occurred. She had been raised, since the age of one, in a series of foster homes and residential institutions. Never having lived in an intact family unit, she didn't know how to parent her daughters but was fierce in her determination to give them the best start she could in life. She would often call to ask for help, especially when they entered school - she just didn't know how to interact with the system. She taught me how to survive and protect myself and my sons as my ex descended deeper into alcoholism and drug abuse. I don't think I would have made it without her.
Her knowledge was first hand. The stories she casually told to illustrate her points, as is the practice with aboriginal elders, revealed a life of such brutality and abuse that I am surprised that she still keeps on trying. Her body shows the results of many attempts to take her own life and she has her own pattern of self destructive behavior that is triggered when memories of the past become too overwhelming to face. When I was reading the account of the mixed race aborigines that the author of Mutant Message Down Under worked with, it also had powerful resonances with the North American experience.
As with my friend's timely stories, the story of the lessons learned in the walkabout comes at the right time to answer some of the questions that have been troubling me since the recent spate of deaths in my family and point to the next steps on the path. Nothing happens without a reason.
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