Hanrahan’s gloomy predictions were funny in their day, when first penned by bush poet John O’Brien. Today… not so much. They have a scary ring of truth to them.
In fact we’re pretty much ‘rooned’ already. Not yet, but I fear it is close.
I want to give a personal perspective of why we need Extinction Rebellion in South Australia (XRSA) and I ask these four questions.
- why are we here? (what happened?)
- what is it like here? (are we doomed or is there hope?)
- can we get there? ( I know, let’s do a SWAT analysis!)
- on being where? ( dunno, have to wait and see how it evolves)
So why are we here? ‘Here’ – for me – is Kaurna country and I acknowledge and understand the privilege that I have in being able to live and spend the majority of my time on Kaurna land. I also acknowledge the uniqueness of this land and its eco-systems and the way it quietly but definitely shapes the lives of the living human and non-human communities that operate from this land. I deeply respect the cultural circle of life that has existed on this land for tens of thousands of years and I share the dream of all of us returning to an interconnected space which allows all beings to thrive and survive well into the future and importantly, to do it together.
My aim here is not to speak for XRSA but to add to the argument that our future could well hinge on it. The word argument is suggestive; it denotes sides, to-ing and fro-ing, right and wrong etcetera etcetera. And that sort of polar-opposite thinking is, I reckon, a big part of the reason why we are here. Simplistically but with huge complexities it is about returning to a new beginning where human systems can co-operatively evolve with nature and natural systems. I say returning because we once had it, we understood our connection to land and place and all living beings, sentient beings according to Buddha. Indigenous people still have it. In fact, as I understand it, that knowledge informs their cultural existence. The notion of dominion over other living species or even of ownership of land and water and other shared resources is ridiculous when you consider yourself a part of the landscape. In the next blog I would like to do a bit of a skirt around rampant capitalism and touch on neo-liberalism.
But for now, I leave it with an absurdity.
It is as if we think we are super evolvers, that we have evolved so far, that we are no longer natural. How very very absurd.
Sue, XRSA member and rebel.