Summing up what is alive and vibrant for me as of November 2022

Premises:

• Remember to have care and regard for the Earth as a Thou, not an It. As a sentient system, it has a will and a trajectory of development, and a right to exist and to do its thing.

• Remember that humans are nested within and embedded in this larger whole, as one player in this living system, not higher or better or more important than any other.

• Remember that we have a part to play a contribution to offer to the living systems within which we are nested.

• Believe in the unique genius of each human being – every one of us has an essential role, a necessary contribution to make in this whole. It is the great and sacred work of a human life to discern that role/contribution, and act in accordance with it.

• Support each other in developing the capacity to engage with the world from this awareness.

• Discerning the role of engineers and consultants in this space is not about creating something ‘new’ but about uncovering what is already here.

• Collaborating from the shared belief that we are nested within/belong to our places could unlock powerful unrealised and transformative potential which would benefit all living systems, humans included.

Because we are habituated to the left-brain, mechanistic way, and we swim in a world that has been constructed according to that perspective, it takes conscious, intentional effort to show up from a regenerative point of view, and not lose our shape and bend to match what’s around us.

As we work to build these new capabilities, it may be helpful to note that it is called regenerative ‘practice’. Like painting, or roller skating or cooking, you will have to find your own way, and you’re not going to get it right the first time, it will take time. And also like those things, understanding only comes from experiencing it. And it is worth the effort because it’s thrilling – these experiences blow our hair back. Walking along a footpath, and nearly walking into a kookaburra in a low tree branch - I was startled, but he just looked at me like, ‘ ‘Sup?’ Feeling the forward pull of wind and water on a sailboat while crewing with friends and laughing with exhilaration as we heel over in a strong gust. Watching the sun rise behind Uluru from Kata Tjuta and feeling the silent hum of the dawning day. This is the stuff life is about, right?

What does this mean for community practitioners?

Where to from here? If we were to summarise, it might be:

1. Generating ourselves anew in a value-adding process: leaving behind the mechanical worldview and connecting into the regenerative one means shifting our attention from one of grasping to one of observing. This is transformational work. Nothing is going to be the same as it was, and some things will have to be shaken up and broken for this to happen. This is not just work for our benefit, but for the systems we are embedded within, and to realign with the overall trajectory of place – for now to some extent, but more for what will be enabled for generations to come

2. We need some help with this and our mentors are all around us. Our fellow living creatures, and the land itself. The Source material lives within them, everywhere, waiting to be uncovered.

3. Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples can find the next iteration together, from a common basis of care and regard for this place on whom we depend, and who is depending on us to remember Her. From here, we can act with integrity – aligned with and nested within. Working in the built environment is a fantastic, highly participatory, highly visible, both large-scale and fine-grain communal interface to practice this remembering.

4. It is essential that we do it. As we say in Texas, ‘You can’t get there from here.’ Without this shift, it is clear what the outcome will be. If we want to be on a different trajectory, this is necessary work.

‘To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering both human and otherwise… we all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love anyway, to let it crack me open.’

-John

Green

This is not unchartered territory. We have been here before

For me, the reassuring thing is that what we need to make this shift is already within us. We can remind our left-hemispheres that we are not stepping into the unknown. We are stepping into remembering. As an Indigenous man said to me, ‘Country is always talking to us; we just have to be quiet and listen.’ The invitation is always here. All that is required is for us to open up to it and move into it. We are not separate, we are not alone, we are not doing this for the first time. This has always been the way: we have stepped off the path and we can find our way back.

As one example, and to bring this back full circle, at the start of this paper I mentioned a story about this forgetting and remembering. The story had in mind is from my cultural memory, a medieval Irish text called ‘The Settling of the Manor of Tara’31 In the story, it’s time for the annual feast where the nobles come to Tara to pay tribute to the High King, and the nobles have refused to come. The High King consults with his Druid, and they agree they have sensed a disturbance in the Great Peace and that the land and their souls are troubled. The High King sends for the wise storyteller, Fintan. Everyone agrees to come together to hear what Fintan has to say. The High King explains that all these human relationships are disrupted, and they can’t resolve it amongst themselves because it is ‘as if their minds were in a mist’. So Fintan reminds them of what they have forgotten – that the guidance they seek is embedded in the land. This re-establishment of that essential – literally ‘grounding’ – connection gives them clarity:

‘When Fintan finished retelling the ancient story, the nobles looked at the High King with new eyes of understanding. They knew he was fit to be their leader. The High King looked at the nobles with new eyes of compassion. He knew that all of them, himself included, had been under the sway of a profound forgetfulness. With the account of the mysterious spirit-man, the living wisdom of the [spirit] wheel, and the sacred knowledge of Mother Ireland in each of the [cardinal] directions, something long cherished and vital had been restored in all of them. They remembered who they were.’32

Going back to the distinction between acquiring knowledge and observation, this shift is not about borrowing someone else’s robes, it is weaving your own. It will come about from looking inward, and connecting outward, in a way that is unique to you, informed by your place. From the Australian context, Tyson Yunkaporta puts it this way:

‘I have previously talked about civilised cultures losing collective memory and having to struggle for thousands of years to gain full maturity and knowledge again, unless they have assistance. But that assistance does not take the form of somebody passing on cultural content and ecological wisdom. The assistance I’m talking about comes from sharing patterns of knowledge and ways of thinking that will help trigger the ancestral knowledge hidden inside, the assistance people need is not in learning about Aboriginal knowledge, but in remembering their own.’33

We can see now how this also connects to Carol Sanford’s definition of regeneration: we are looking to generate anew from what is core, from the original source content, informed by our current context.

‘We live immersed in a sea of energy beyond all comprehension. But this energy, in an ultimate sense, is not ours by domination, but by invocation…we need only summon these forces to our support in order to succeed.’

– Thomas Berry

We are left with the profound question: what could be possible if we were to engage in the design of human spaces from a perspective which is enervated and informed by such ‘long-cherished’ ways of being in relationship?

One idea to answer this question is suggested in the book, Songlines, in the idea of the ‘Third Archive’, which weaves Indigenous cultural wisdom and western science into a powerful partnership. Work would be led by Indigenous knowledges of being on Country to guide the choices about what to do, which would then be supported by western scientific data to communicate the intended result and monitor, verify and demonstrate the benefits of these approaches over mechanistic ones. This growing data set could, in turn, help deepen the collective understanding and appreciation of how our living systems work, which would give us more options on how to support their thriving. It could be a weaving of scientific and traditional knowledges similar to what is happening in medicine – but applied to the body of Earth.

The character of this work would be of deep care and regard, of enacting stewardship. It would be a partnership, a relational way of being, connecting individuals, human communities, non-human kin, and our places, rebuilding the web of Life so that all are able to thrive within its embrace. In the words of Maori architect Whare Timu, ‘In any development, we should be able to see that love has guided the outcome.’ am interested to explore this in greater detail through application in our respective places and look forward to continuing to develop my understanding through collaboration with others on this journey. If you’re interested to join this effort, please let me know.

If we shifted ourselves to act from this worldview, what might be enabled if we were to work on co-creating the next iteration of indigeneity, together? Who might we become through this work, and what would it enable Earth to become?

There is limited time. We need to be clear about what we are committed to so that we can be intentional about how we show up and do it. For ourselves, for our profession, for our species, for our living world – we believe this is the direction we need to go.

Looking forward to the next iteration, Mary

References

1 Kuhn, Thomas (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

2 Neale, Margo and Lynne Kelly (2020) Songlines: The Power and Promise

3 Brundtland Commission Report: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf

4 Campbell, Joseph (1991) The Power of Myth

5 Benyus, Janine (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature

6 Lovelock, James (1995) The Ages of Gaia

7 Fuller, Buckminster, https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/world-game/

8 Attenborough, David (narrator), Beard, Tom (director), 2021 ‘The Year the Earth Changed’ Presented on Apple TV

9 McGilchrist, Ian (2019) The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

10 McGilchrist, Ian (2021) The Coincidence of Opposites lecture, Ralston College YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=N4AFdNxLmb4

11 Sanford, Carol (2019) ‘Regenerative Business, “Part 1:The History and Practice of ‘Regeneration’”, posted at https://sustainablebrands.com/read/leadership/regenerative-business-diving-into-the-history-etymology-and-practice-ofregeneration

12 Sanford, Carol (2019) ‘Regenerative Business, “Part 1:The History and Practice of ‘Regeneration’”, posted at https://sustainablebrands.com/read/leadership/regenerative-business-diving-into-the-history-etymology-and-practice-ofregeneration

13 Connecting to Country paper: https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ga/media/files/ga/discussion-papers/draftconnecting-with-country-framework-2020-11-12.pdf

14 Poelina, Dr Anne et al (2020) ‘Indigenous Natural and First Law in Planetary Health

15 Designing with Country paper: https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ga/media/files/ga/ discussion-papers/discussion-paper-designing-with-country-2020-06-02.pdf

16 Graham, Mary (2014) ‘Aboriginal Notions of Relationality and Positionalism’, (Global Discourse. Vol 4. 2014), from Greenprints website, https://www.greenprints.org.au/knowledge-base/relationist-ethos/

17 Broun, Jodi and David Kennedy and Dillion Kombumerri et all (2020), https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ga/ media/files/ga/discussion-papers/draft-connecting-with-country-framework-2020-11-12.pdf

18 Kennedy, Broun, Jodi and David and Kombumerri, Dillion et all (2020), https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ ga/media/files/ga/discussion-papers/draft-connecting-with-country-framework-2020-11-12.pdf

19 Graham, Mary (2014) ‘Aboriginal Notions of Relationality and Positionalism’, (Global Discourse. Vol 4. 2014), from Greenprints website, https://www.greenprints.org.au/knowledge-base/relationist-ethos/)

20 Yukaporta, Tyson (2019) Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World

21 Poelina, Dr Anne et al (2022) ‘Regeneration Time: Ancient Wisdom for Planetary Wellbeing’

22 Poelina, Dr Anne et al (2021) ‘Forging the Forever Industries How ancient wisdom can guide the transition to new economies’, https://stories.acf.org.au/forging-the-forever-industries

23 Neale, Margo and Lynne Kelly (2020) Songlines: The Power and Promise

24 Graham, Mary (2014) ‘Aboriginal Notions of Relationality and Positionalism’, (Global Discourse. Vol 4. 2014), from Greenprints website, https://www.greenprints.org.au/knowledge-base/relationist-ethos/

25 Hromek, Dr Daniele and Dillion Kombumerri et all (2020), ‘Designing with Country’, https://www.aidr.org.au/media/7760/ designing-with-country-discussion-paper.pdf

26 Designing with Country paper: https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ga/media/files/ga/ discussion-papers/discussion-paper-designing-with-country-2020-06-02.pdf

27 Mang, Pamela (2017) Regenerative Development video series, https://vimeo.com/222688050

28 Poelina, Dr Anne et al (2020) ‘Indigenous Natural and First Law in Planetary Health

29 Berry, Thomas (1990) The Great Work: Our Way into the Future

30 Berry, Thomas (1990) The Great Work: Our Way into the Future

31 Scott-Thompson, Christopher (2020) ‘The Settling of the Manor at Tara’ https://abeautifulresistance.org/site/2020/2/12/ the-manor-of-tara

32 MacEowen, Frank (2007) The Celtic Way of Seeing: Meditations of the Irish Spirit Wheel

33 Yukaporta, Tyson (2019) Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World of no realm is mine, but all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward.”