First Peoples
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this resource may contain images or names of people who have since passed away.
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IT WAS raining in Darwin when I left a couple of days ago and the wet is settled on the land. The wet season will remain for several more weeks yet before the season gives way to the dry around Easter. The cycle continues.
Here in the south the persistent drought seems to be ending, as even those most concerned at the reality of climate change knew it must. The political cycle however is less regular. Today in our Parliament, a crippling long dry spell may have just ended.
Up north the Aboriginal people of the Kimberley and the Northern Territory will be completing their annual cycle of ceremony and renewal of their cultural responsibilities. They will participate in ceremony and ritual that goes back to what our Yawuru people know as the Bugarrigarra - the time of the Dreaming.
Young people will move from adolescence to adulthood in ceremony and come out from the bush with a different set of rights and responsibilities within their community.
Old people will sing the songs of the country and teach intricate verse and dance that are the story of the land, the rivers and the seas of our people.
Throughout Australia other Aboriginal people are using contemporary forms to illustrate the nature of our Aboriginal society and to share elements of our story and society with non Indigenous Australians ...
