Changing Land 1

Yidumduma discussing climate changes he has witnessed on his traditional land, the seasons, rainfall, flood, drought, and earthquake connected to the Ancestor Rainbow. He talks of the loss of the traditional rainmakers and the effect of people walking on the moon. He talks of the spiritual on the land being all mixed up now and causing "mischief" among the people, causing everything to "get out of hand".

Related Links:
Dingoes Have Actually Changed the Shape of the Australian Desert
"Earth Has Shifted" Inuit Elders
 Waiting to Move:  Global Oneness Project Lesson Plan on climate change and an Alaskan indigenous community.

Return to Changing Land 1: Intro Chapter
Return to Changing Land 1: Land Chapter

Transcript

Now, with the changes where I was born, I grew up in the country.
I wasn't born in town, I was born in the bush.
We lived off the bush land,
that was part of our supermarket in the bush, in the country.
All our bush food is being destroyed, going away.
When I was growing up, all through, everything was very neat,
lots of different plants, soil...all looking good all the way.
Every year, when we were growing up,
we went out bush in the field,
many big rivers, very deep, you couldn't see the bottom...
Now everything is changing on the river as well.
...when we had grown up a bit, I became a little stockman.
When we were out on the run,
rounding up cattle in some places, until we had grown up a bit further,
we saw the rains in the early days, from the 1940's up to 1950,
October was our big rain, we call that 'thunderstorm coming',
rainy season is going to start.
Then you stop, change your plan and get rid of everything,
everyone goes on holiday, they call it a walkabout.
You'd get a rain from October, November it start to get bigger,
January and February used to be a monsoon rain,
and March was the 'knock-'em-down' rain.
The 'knock-'em-down' mean, the rain come down and knock all the grass down.
That tells you the rains are finished, when the grass was knocked down.
Now, you don't see any of the grass knocked down these days. Everything is changed from the 1940's to 1950,1955.
Then you used to get all this very big rain with a lot of water in the soil and the spring, the billabong they call it, they were full.
Up around 1955, everything was changing, what they call a drought. The drought used to come on, from August, all through sometime..
hardly any rain, was only a little drizzle rain, wouldn't fill up the river, wouldn't fill up any billabongs... none at all.
The grass wouldn't grow, everything was just bare,
that was the big drought.
We didn't have much food for stock...
Some places we had to go down and chop trees with the axe,
for the leaves so the cattle could eat, because the country was pretty bare from the big drought.
In early days.. a lot of old people, with the Aboriginal people, there was a rainmaker,
they could sing the rain to come down... every year,
but all those old rainmakers are now dead and gone.
Nobody... has passed on the song and everything to the young one today,
because the policy come in with the government when...
everyone had to become equal...
and that's destroyed the full culture of the Aborigine.
There was a singer for rain, for snakebite or whatever.
They cured themselves with all the song in the early days...
Now they are all gone, that's why everything is changing,
and all the drought has come.
...the river is getting shallow, springs are going dry... 
We are saying,''Well, what's going on?'
What happened, we saw the first one back in 1966, around about that year.
We saw the rocket going up to the moon.
We said, 'Well, rocket has gone up to the moon, it'll bugger the whole world'. That's what we said.
What that means...touching the moon, you shouldn't be interfering with the moon.
That's when it changed, everything now, is climate change, today and all over.
We are saying, 'We don't know what's going to happen'.
There's a big pollution in the air, everything is going crazy in the country.
It's the Spiritual turning everything over...
He's sitting there twisting your mind around, spinning it,
He's saying that, "Something is going to destroy you'...
The Spiritual can destroy the whole land, we can stay in the water,
or we can get a big flood and swipe the whole country.
Or, maybe we can get a cyclone. We never had a cyclone.
We had a bit of windstorm and all that in early days, but there was no cyclone, like the big flying wind that takes the roof off...
We never had any of those things.
Now, today, everything is changing.
The World is turning around to look at all of us,
and He is saying, 'Well, these people have gone crazy, we got to do something about the land'...
They can overturn everything..., not only in Australia,
but here too, all over.
What that means, He could force people to do all sorts of different mischief...
The mischief mean, they could be doing a lot of bad things,
burning off houses, or...a big fight, killing one another,
or the big wind can come along and destroy everybody (whose) out of hand...
And that's what the old people now are saying...
'Everything is going really mad'.
We are trying to explain it all to young one today...
'You got to listen and understand what the law mean'.
'You just can't go out of hand and do what you like'.
'You got to come back and listen to the atmosphere'...
The Spiritual is the thing that is watching us...
Now, because of the rocket went up to the moon,
you don't know what's gonna happen.
It could just become dark all of a sudden, we'll have no moon left.
Or, He could just tell the sun to come down low and cook all of us.
... or He says, 'Get the flood water back and swipe the whole country,
or get the big flood and swipe all the big town...'
Or the big cyclone will come along and just swipe all township away,
and that will include with the earthquake, come to combine in one.
The Rainbow is underneath in the Spiritual can take the soil away from you, can put you down.
They connect with the earthquake...
Then you got the stars, the moon, and all them there. They all looking from up top...in the Spiritual.
We... are the new generation, under a new Spiritual world.
That's what we are now.           

Return to Changing Land 1: Intro Chapter
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