‘learn today from yesterday for a better tomorrow’
(in Dhurga language of the South Coast of NSW)
By Arjuna Ben-Zion Weiss
‘In the wake of the disastrous bushfires of 2020, COVID 19 and Black
Lives Matter, join Uncle Noel Butler, Budawang man and Yuin Elder,
and his wife Trish on his ancestral land on the NSW South Coast near
Ulladulla.
Learn to understand and accept indigenous culture by living it; walking
on country, sitting and listening to stories and sharing food.’
This was the invitation to participate in a one week training as ambassadors for Country. My role specifically was to lead some Dances of Universal Peace, facilitate some yarning circles and lead a morning practice of Element Breaths and greeting Grandfather Sun. More generally I was there to support Uncle Noel, Trish and Shaun and the team in the general running of the retreat and in any other ways as they arose.
My experience of the retreat was to be extremes of grief and despair on hearing the stories that Uncle Noel and his family shared with us about their experience of being Aboriginal in Australia. Also, it was a great joy and ecstasy to be there on Country, with some 35 amazing participants from all walks of life, to sit in the circle with the fire in our middle, surrounded by a grove of Norfolk pines. To sing and dance around the fire, to share meals and stories with friends and family, to walk the bush, to swim at the beach with the dolphins and the sting rays, to listen to the symphony of the birds as they sang to us daily and to commune in meditation with the ancestors and the spirits of the Country. 
Our days began with yoga led by Fabio (pictured on right), often at the beach, and with Element Breaths and Bungaling or Grandfather Sun greetings, usually around the fire. We then had a shared breakfast and met for teachings from Uncle Noel and family. Uncle Noel began the retreat with making fire in the traditional way and with a smoking ceremony, to welcome us to Country. I’ve attached the schedule below. We formed 6 Totem groups which was a major part of the experience in Country.
There was Meregan the dingo (photo below by Jenni Chivell), Bilima the turtle, Wonga the pigeon, Bujan the silvereye, Ngarran ngarran the lyrebird and Gogok the mopoke or little owl. Uncle Noel told us the dreaming stories associated with these totems and then people met with their totem group every afternoon. It was a coming together of family or skin groups, to share their experiences of the day and to explore their relationship with their totem animal’s story. In particular Uncle Noel encouraged people to consider how their own life story related to their totem and what they could learn from that relationship and from each other.
On the last afternoon each totem group were invited to present their insights creatively through dance, drama, story, song, costume, art or poetry. As a drama teacher myself, these presentations were a delight to experience. In the context of our circle around the fire it was like a form of ancient theatre that tribal people have performed for thousands of years all around the world. Each presentation revealed a deep understanding of the journey of the totem group and revealed the deeper levels of these dreaming stories.
This was very apparent from the final sharing circle when people shared their experiences of the totem and how it related to their own personal story as well as the group story. As Uncle Noel explained, these totems were the voices of the ancestors of his Budawang people. They were always present and offered protection and guidance if we knew how to tune into them. My own totem of the magpie has often been present at significant times or offered me a welcome to country. Magpies were singing in the background during several of our circle sessions around the fire.
All the stories had a profound teaching about our relations in the natural world and what we could learn from them. Bilima the turtle was a story about coming home after travelling long distances, Ngarran Ngarran the lyrebird was another totem group:
I shared a story of how I was once camping at Jamanee Gunya during winter, and when I lay there in my tent in the morning, I heard all these bird calls. When I told Uncle Noel about that he explained that all these calls came from Ngarran Ngarran because during the winter months the other birds were away, so the lyrebird provided the bush soundscape with the same dawn chorus. This was another profound teaching for me as a social ecologist. It was in my doctoral research in social ecology on anti-racism process through drama education that I first had my realisation about an ecology of culture.
This was an important breakthrough because in contemporary mainstream Australian society, which largely derives from the European culture that invaded and then colonised this Country, the idea of ecology and culture being related is not well recognised. I believe that Aboriginal people describe this with the observation that ‘White Man has no Dreaming’. They see the Australian culture as being disembodied and separated from Country. I would argue that this is because the Dreaming of European culture comes from different Countries – it evolved over several thousand years from the ancient cultures of the Middle East, of Greece, of Rome. The Judea Christian religion, the philosophy and political practices of Ancient Greece and the legislation, engineering and military practices of the Ancient Romans, Vikings and Normans, the farming, architectural practices and literary traditions of the Anglo Germanic culture, as well as the spiritual practices of the Celtic peoples are all part of the European Dreaming that the British colonists brought to Australia.
Ecologically these European cultural practices were not very compatible with an arid land mass, with tropical as well temperate climates in the north and the south. Only the coastal region of the east coast was able to sustain many of these cultural practices, which is why we see this high concentration of population in south eastern Australia, as well as our high level of urbanisation. In popular Australian culture this has manifested as the tension between the country and the city and resulted in such tragic marginalisation and oppression of our First Nations people.
For me, the experience of 7 days living on Country with the teaching of Bagia Narway Gabun Buridja as presented by Uncle Noel and his family has allowed me to deepen into the ecology of culture that I experienced with indigenous people from here, as well as from Pacific Islands like Aotearoa and from Turtle Island (North America). The opportunity of leading the Dances of Universal Peace around the campfire (photo by Jenny Templin), which drew from these other indigenous cultures of the Native American and the Maori and of my own Jewish indigenous ancestors from the Middle East, were an example of a resonance between the culture and the ecology.
This resonant cultural ecology was present through the focus on the Alchemical Elements which are part of Universal Sufi practices that grew out of the deserts of the Middle East, Ancient Egypt as well as the Yogic practices of India. These elements relate to chakras in Yoga and the Ayurvedic medicine that Shaun brought to our retreat through the food preparation. Among his other contributions was the Dadirri deep listening session that he led.
The same ecology of culture was present in the walks in the bush looking at medicinal and food plants from both the Aboriginal perspective that Uncle Noel brought as well as the European herbal traditions that Steve and Diego shared with us.
This cultural ecology was evident in the Women’s and Men’s business sessions, as well as the Yoga on the beach, the morning practices around the fire, the Chi Gung practices with the kangaroos watching in the grassy area.
The process of integrating this retreat over the last week or so has had its challenges as I learn to readapt to being in the big smoke of Sydney. At first, I experienced a real culture shock due to the urban ecology of the city, although my living near the beach helped to ameliorate the shock as I was by the same great ocean of peace (Pacific Ocean). Over the last week I’ve been able to readjust to my urban environment as it too offers many benefits like cafes and friends and cinemas and other cultural experiences, which I also value in my life. However, I am left with a strong sense of my connection to the Budawang Country and to Uncle Noel and his family., especially his partner Trish and Pirate, who is an inspired artist and natural philosopher. I treasure the experience and the images and sounds, both literal and remembered of all our relations that have come back with me.
Communing with Country
on the NSW South Coast
I feel my deep connection
with Budawang Country
and its people –
What a blessing!
Text and photos by Arjuna Ben, except for photos labelled otherwise