Wajaarr (Country)
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Guunu-warluuny (Culture)
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Miindalay-gam (Wisdom)
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Wajaarr (Country) 〰️ Guunu-warluuny (Culture) 〰️ Miindalay-gam (Wisdom) 〰️
Guunu-warluuny (Culture)
Guunu-warluuny is our entire identity, holding our language, lore, values, morals. It is integral to our spiritual, cultural and physical wellbeing. Guunu-warluuny is multi-systemic, giving us strength, a sense of belonging, a purpose, humility and resilience. Guunu-warluuny allows us to be interconnected with each other, our wajaarr and our language. It is the ongoing transmission of knowledge; encompassing and ever evolving. Guunu-warluuny is our ceremony, dances, songs, stories, and custodianship, ensuring ngarraanga for everything. It also encompasses us as a people; our behaviour, our wellbeing, how we interact, and, our ability to care for ourselves and one another.
Miindalay-gam (Wisdom)
Our miindalay-gam of our ancestors has been passed down for generations, deeply centred around ngarraanga (respect) and ngurra-ngurray (reciprocity) . We are lifelong learners with the oldest living culture in the world. Our ancestors and Elders are our knowledge keepers. It is imperative we continue as lifelong learners, showing ngarraanga for their knowledge, learning from their miindalay-gam, showing patience. It is our responsibility to share miindalay-gam with confidence and humility, reawakening the ancient knowledge systems which have always existed while embedding this knowledge into the future. We acknowledge that we are all teachers bringing different miindalay-gam. Maintaining our miindalay-gam requires us to exhibit an eagerness to learn, to try hard, persist and practice resilience. Our junuybiin are our next generation of knowledge holders, continuing our language, our culture and our wisdoms.
Wajaarr (Country)
Wajaarr (land and sea) is central to our physical, cultural and spiritual knowledge. Country holds our language, our kinship, our lore, our stories, our songlines and our ceremonial places, it is our entire existence. It is our mother, our healer; giving us strength, providing nourishment, foods, medicines, life. It is our classroom, our teacher. Our connection to wajaarr runs deep and it is our cultural responsibility to care for and gain understanding from wajaarr, enabling us to manage the land traditionally and sustainably, through fire and other means. It is imperative that we read, understand and deeply connect with wajaarr, leaving no footprint long into the future.