#IndigenousHistory #IndigenousKnowledgeIsNotAllPastTense of the place now called #Australia
This is a fantastic introductory-but-not-shallow resource offered via the ABC (australian broadcasting commission).
reading one of the stories here about the emu in the sky, and how that story reminds us of signs if we are in a time of drought, I was reminded of what Tyson Yunkaporta says about the Indigenous worldview (not in this resource but in Tyson’s brilliant book Right Story, Wrong Story)
In a thought experiment he calls <Schrodinger’s Wombat>, Tyson compares how western culture thinks about the world (in terms of closed, static systems with a limited number of discrete variables) and the way Indigenous people see the world — systems are open, dynamic, and have an endless number of variables. Relationships show the variables constantly affecting each other.
“A wombat is in a hollow log, and we have to decide whether it is alive or dead. However, because the log is not an enclosed system, we are aware of the thousands of exchanges of energy, matter and information between the log and the surrounding country. We see what the insects are doing, the fungi on the log and surrounding trees, how the wombat behaves in that particular season. We see its fresh scat on a nearby rock. We feel the wind direction and the recent tracks that tell us about the animal's behaviour and condition. We see no sign of recent snake activity (although you're never more than ten metres away from a snake in the bush). We see a thousand things and know that the wombat is alive and inside the log. We see this because we are not only thinking about the log and what might be inside. Rather, we are an integral part of the dynamic system of that country, which is observing itself through our relationship. So we share in the exchange of energy and information in that system and are therefore not intervening in the system from the outside”
anyway, the emu story that got me excited was called
Stars tell Mutthi Mutthi people went to collect emu eggs
and it’s in the story section headed Emu in the sky