Recently, I attended a workshop as a part of the
‘Aboriginal Water Initiative’ of NSW Office of Water, where I work. The program, ‘Aboriginal Water Initiative’,
is to ensure water used by Aborigines for their cultural services are taken
into consideration and provided for when water is allocated and managed in
river basins. This is one of the four
categories of ecosystem services provided by water, others being provisioning,
supportive, and regulatory. I had been
in the water sector for a long time, and I believe this ‘initiative’ is one of
a kind, and again, Australians are showing the way forward.
The prime objective of the workshop was to sensitize non
aboriginal Australians to sensitivities of Aborigines in Australia. There were 24 participants, none of them were
Aborigines. The instructor had Aboriginal
mother and Italian father. This gave him
the liberty to use a wide ranging vocabulary, some are politically
incorrect. Those words did drive his
messages though.
His first exercise was to remind everyone that occupation of
Australia by non-Aborigines is only for the last 227 years, Aborigines
inhabited this vast continent for more than 40,000 years, and the continent
itself is very much older than the people who live(d) in it. Well, everyone knew this, but the reminder
set the scene.
Then he asked the group to split into two, those who were
born in Australia and those who immigrated.
The split was 50:50. Those who
immigrated were separated on the basis of their country of origin, and those
born in Australia were separated on the basis of their parents’ country of
birth. By this time, there were almost
24 groups, each with one member. The
point was made again, we are all different, yet we are all the same. We differ, if we choose to, we conform when
we choose to. He maintained, although we
differed, we are all unique and should be very proud of our ancestry. No one could disagree.
Then what’s the problem?
The problem is when one group thinks their ancestry is some or other
better than the others’ ancestry. I see
this as the root cause of conflicts. In
Sri Lanka some Sinhala-Buddhists consider their ancestry is some or other
better than Tamil-Hindus or Tamil-Muslims.
In the Arabian Gulf, ISIS considers it superior to everyone else. I can go on.
What we do not remember is that most of us did not choose
our mother tongue, nationality or religion.
We were born into whatever we are.
Every one’s ancestry has lessons for others to better themselves. Our focus, especially in societies like in
Australia, should be to cherish the opportunity and learn the best from each
other.
There’s also confusion between Nationalism and Patriotism
among some. I can be a proud Jaffna-Tamil,
and a patriotic Australian, can’t I?
Patriotism will be challenged only when I expect every Australian to be
like Jaffna Tamil. After all, Tamil is only 5000 years old,and Hinduism is only 12000 years old. In comparison with the period Aborigines have inhabited Australia, I haven't got much to brag about, isn't it!
So, let’s be proud about our ancestry, let’s not insist ours
is better than that of others’, and definitely not insist on everyone to become
like us.
