It might have been the theme or catch phrase for NAIDOC Week in 2021, but it needs to be more than a one off or some kind of sentimental feel good activity that was done back in July and then shoved aside.  Healing Country has to be what we do every day.  It has to be front and centre of each decision we make, each dollar we spend and invest, each day, week, month. Business as usual, if it’s not about Healing Country, is not going to get us the healthy regenerative, circular systems future we desperately need. 

This issue of Munibung Musings, as is the case with each issue, focuses on ways we can move positively and co-operatively in the direction of Healing Country.  We could start with a self examination of our internal household affairs that include our use of petroleum in all its forms: plastic packaging, polyester clothing, synthetic shoes, furniture, electrical appliances, fossil fueled cars and SUVs, the list shows just how much we have become hooked on extractive industries operated by huge multi-national corporations. Healing Country will by definition require a massive shift away from these industries that have woven themselves into every aspect of our lives.  Unlike the Circular Economy which has been practiced by our non-human and indigenous forebears, the current western economic growth model flies in the face of all ecological and earth law principles. There are no half baked, green wash measures before us, there are only, as David Attenborough would say, earth grounded principles required for balance to be restored

Indigenous practices hold many of the keys to the various doors that must be opened as we walk our way to a brighter, more holistic future.  There’s no rocket science needed.  The answers are in the land, the water, the plants, the animals, the scientific knowledge of an academic and barefoot kind – reading the land and listening to nature. The voices that have been silenced up until now are starting to be heard. We see ourselves as part of this voice for Healing Country. In this transition phase we need to turn the tables on the present model to get the 3 Ps in the correct order. First things first: planet as primary, people as secondary and profit as a derivative of the first two. Without the planet (Mother Earth) there are no materials by which people can produce stuff to consume and live by – or in our modern setting, to use money to express themselves in lifestyle fashions.   For: A Declaration of Sustainability, click on The Ecology of Commerce link.