Ancient bush medicine and healing traditions visited Melbourne last week when Alice Springs’ Akeyulerre organisation made a special presentation.
The delegation included Arrernte Elders whose practice of traditional healing carries on a knowledge system over 60,000 years old.
Akeyulerre Inc. has, since 2000, become a leading light not only in retaining local knowledge systems but in passing them down to the next generation.
At the Akeyulerre healing centre, Arrernte Elders and ngangkeres (traditional healers) – including Patricia Webb and Eva Hayes, who came to Melbourne with the delegation – collect and prepare bush medicines in the traditional way. The medicine is then administered to local residents for free. Youth come to the centre to learn the traditional practices from the Elders.
“Akeyulerre is a place of sharing, a place that we gather, where the Elders pass their knowledge down to the young ones,” Akeyulerre chairperson Amelia Turner said. “It’s about pride and respect.
“The young people are always there to learn from the old people. So they keep that knowledge. Without that knowledge, without their culture, they will be lost, they won’t find their place in the world. It is for them we keep our practices alive.”
Akeyulerre’s Kat Hope said as a result Arrernte youth had a stronger sense of identity and self-respect.
“They’ve found a place in the world that respects their knowledge and their culture, and it gives them so much pride in who they are,” she said.
“This is something indigenous peoples around the world are struggling with, so for Akeyulerre to have created this place is very special.”
Last week’s presentation, at Melbourne’s Koori Heritage Trust, was part of Akeyulerre’s efforts to promote the importance of traditional indigenous knowledge to mainstream Australians.
They are finding innovative ways to keep their ancient heritage relevant – including creating a social enterprise, Interrentye, to sell their traditional products, such as bush chest rubs, body lotions and lip balm, at markets and online. Akeyulerre also works closely with other local organisations and service providers.
“We want to share our knowledge with whitefellas,” Arrernte woman Grace Gorey said. “So they understand how rich our culture is, how rich it has been for thousands of years.”
Jane Vadiveloo, chief executive of non-profit group Children’s Ground, which hosted the delegation, said the work of Akeyulerre and first nations knowledge systems should be celebrated and more deeply understood.
She said that too often, development approaches to first nation communities in Australia focused on the negative and failed to appreciate the strength of the existing worldview. As a result, such approaches often undermined existing community strength.
“Aboriginal knowledge systems should be at the forefront of practice, rather than at the fringes,” she said. “Aboriginal people continue to say that they want their children to be strong both ways – strong in the old ways, their ways, and strong in western ways too.
“As Akeyulerre demonstrates, respecting the expertise of what is the world’s oldest living knowledge system has positive effects on the wider community, provides jobs to cultural doctors, educators and professors, and to young people who are culturally equipped and wanting to develop their skills.”
Young Arrernte woman and Akeyulerre board member Amunda Gorey told the Melbourne audience Akeyulerre was like a fire, the flames of which represented different aspects of culture:
“Family, country, language, dance, song, stories. It is safe around that fire. We look into the fire and we see our identity. We see who we are. It heals us, it nurtures us,” she said.
“It is a place we can come together. It keeps our culture alive. We keep that fire burning.”
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