Brian’s Weblog

Kanyini is a wornderful documentary about how Australian Aboriginals see the world. Hosted by Aboriginal Elder Bob Randall, we learn about Kanyini, or Connectedness. There are four points of Connectedness; Land, Belief System, Family and Spirituality. It was against this stunning backdrop where I first learned the way the Aboriginals see the world, and for a while I was fortunate enough to have a similar perspective. I will cover that in another post, but one thing that I found beautiful was that Aboriginals have no concept of Property Ownership. As the Aboriginals believe, we belong to the Land. We cannot own it, only connect with it.

With the world economy in peril, we need to think about one of the main factors that put us in this mess. Property ownership. The bad loans made to people who couldn’t afford mortgages for property that was overpriced anyway. Are we experiencing fear for something that never had any monetary value in the first place? Property only has monetary value, as does gold, diamonds and everything else, because we give it that value as we grasp for security in this world.

Recently I saw on CNN the story of Adolf Merckle, a German billionaire who threw himself in front of a train after losing three billion dollars. His fortune declined from $12.8 billion to $9.2 billion in 2008. He only had nine billion dollars on which to live out his life. Not exactly the poorhouse. He could have blown a million dollars a day for 30 years before being broke at 104 years old. What is sad is that the loss of three billion led to his death. We tend all to often to think that having money will make us free. But for Herr Merckle, was it his prison? Money is only conceptual, so did he kill himself over the loss of something that never existed in the first place? Could money be as big of an illusion as property ownership? Do we own it, or does it own us??

As Bob Randall points out, the Land is our Mother. It feeds us and we take everything we have from her. We are never lost and we are never alone. As Jesus told his followers on the mount, “Consider the lilies, how they grow: They neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. Consider the crows, for they neither sow nor reap, they have no storeroom or barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!” Are the Aboriginals and Jesus saying the same thing? Are they both speaking of Kanyini?

Yet sadly, we see Land as something to buy and sell, or to mine for her so-called valuable resources. We treat our Mother this way for the sake of money, and to feel secure. Could it be that the security we seek can be found in connecting with the Land, rather than exploiting her?

This “connection” isn´t exclusive to the Australian Aboriginals. While thousands upon thousands perished in the 2004 Tsunami is Southeast Asia, very dead few animals were found in the aftermath, and the indeginous peoples on islands in the tsunami´s wake moved to higher ground and survived.  They were connected.

So, what is the lesson to learn? Could it be that as we search for things outside of ourselves to make us feel secure, we are looking for the wrong things? Are we putting our trust in the wrong things? Would connecting with Land give a far greater joy and sense of sucurity than trying to possess it ever will?

Is it time for us to discover Kanyini?

Keep Dreaming,

Brian