You Can See Forever

 Moon, in the wilderness of never ending space, lights up home. 

Ancestors of our land, I bring you back to present time.

Oombulgurri, a human development project in Northern territory, Australia, begun  in the 70's, means "you can see forever".

Oombulgurri is a village which had been a mission station. It had been closed for many years before the ICA facilitated a  demonstration of sustainable community, by people who had grown up there  - and their children.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I am of the belief that the Aboriginal people viewed the vast seemingly endless expanses of the land they traveled, as  European  people considered their castles.

They would travel to different places according to the food available and the weather or gathering, at different times throughout the year.  There were sacred places, and meeting places, and fishing and hunting places - a place for everything.

When the people moved back to Oombulgurri, to the remnants of the mission, every single person over 16 was plagued with alcholism and syphillis , and lost traditions.  Not only had they lost the working memory of their traditions, but they also had to live on the fringes of the towns of the western world, almost as animals.

The village was forty kilometers down the Forrest River, and the salt flats flooded during the rainy season, so transportation in and out was always a challenge.

One time, when there was no getting to a hospital,  a nurse colleague on our team of consultants,  had to deliver a breach birth while I read the manual to her on how to do it. I suspect if tradition had not been lost, we wouldn't have  needed to intervene in this natural process.

The people who lived there had been taught various trades during the mission station days when they were growing up.  For example, Hilton, one of the men who had grown up on the mission, was able to put up fences with totally accurate measurements for miles on end- without a surveying instrument.

The people could hear sounds that were miles away and could point to that which was not visible to my eyes. They knew when a snake was near and when someone was approaching. They knew instinctively when someone had died  and when a woman had recently conceived.

The ability of the Aboriginal people in Oombulgurri to "see forever" had more to do, I am convinced, with being able to empathize with the environment, to relate to the environment as an extension of their physical bodies.

It's as if their bodies and imaginations were inclusive of all of time and all of space.

As an observer, I had many encounters with this reality.  The encounters were new experiences, yet seemed very natural to my senses.

Perhaps, humankind is in the process of once again getting acquainted with its Aboriginal roots. Perhaps we will one day - as a species again - be able to "see forever".

How does seeing forever, enrich  the journey of a life's time?