Uncle Noel and Trish Welcome to Country and Grounding Ceremony
Jan 2019
Jan 2019
Camp Mama here.
I'm out from the first week of our Bluegum Bushcraft Rewild Your Child/ Rewild Tribe camp, and it's been a stunner. Uncle Noel Butler and his gorgeous partner Trish came out to camp to welcome us to country.
I've been at many welcome to country and smoking ceremonies, but this was a whole new level of amazing. The whole tribe was included, on every level.
Uncle Noel is an elder of the Yuin nation. He has intimate, real knowledge of Budawang country, where we run our camps, and our camp is directly on one of his songlines. He grew up trapping food for his family and riding a horse to school, has spent his whole life preserving stories and bringing people home to the old ways, is one of the most generous humans I have ever met, and I could listen to him all day.
He and Trish performed a grounding ceremony where every single person on camp was painted with ochre; men and women coming through in separate lines. I helped paint the women and Lee helped paint the men.
Our camp elders Susan Jameson and John Duffy helped light the fire using hand drill, while kids and camp members also worked on hand drill fires and Seb added their fire to the smoking fire. We all had leaves from the fast growing wattle and the everpresent eucalypts on the land to rub with our sweat and place on the fire. We were all woven in to the land and the smoke.
Uncle Noel danced and sang and every single person walked through the smoke to meet him in his full paint and huge heart and kind eyes. He was present, all the way, roots to leaves. I felt like I had been transported through time. It's the same feeling I get when I am near a deep forest pool at dusk, with dragonflies skimming the surface and clouds reflecting in the water. I really did feel like the land was looking at me and smiling. I have tears writing this.
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Uncle Noel looked every single person in the eyes, and even through the ceremony was long, he was as present for the last person as he was for the first. He welcomed every single one of us, from his heart and his belly.
He said that we are all Australians, and that we all live here and that it's all of our job to love the country, love the land and look after her. Trish held firm as a tree, holding the feminine and supporting Uncle Noel. The kids were silent, listening and drinking him in. There was such a feeling of oneness and family, and I felt no sense of the white shame I can sometimes feel when an Aboriginal elder welcomes a group of white folk to the land. Uncle Noel was not just saying words. He meant every single one of them.
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There was a moment for me when he held up the smoke bundle to the directions, and when he blew it toward the Byangee cliff face, every hair on my body stood on end. This is his country, his mountains, every tree here is his friend. The gratitude he showed for being able to dance his dance and speak his language, and share his wisdom and culture with a hundred rapt faces and open hearts, and the gratitude that our Rewild tribe showed him for his generosity and openness, brings tears to my eyes.
For the rest of the week I heard adults talking about the impact the ceremony had had on them. I heard one child say 'when I grow up I want to heal the land like Uncle Noel.' Lee said... I feel different. The river feels different. The land feels different. I feel welcome. One of the parents couldn't get over Uncle Noel's presence, and the way he met every single person's eyes with love and welcome. You can see it in the faces in the photos. He is one special man.
There was a moment for me when he held up the smoke bundle to the directions, and when he blew it toward the Byangee cliff face, every hair on my body stood on end. This is his country, his mountains, every tree here is his friend. The gratitude he showed for being able to dance his dance and speak his language, and share his wisdom and culture with a hundred rapt faces and open hearts, and the gratitude that our Rewild tribe showed him for his generosity and openness, brings tears to my eyes.
For the rest of the week I heard adults talking about the impact the ceremony had had on them. I heard one child say 'when I grow up I want to heal the land like Uncle Noel.' Lee said... I feel different. The river feels different. The land feels different. I feel welcome. One of the parents couldn't get over Uncle Noel's presence, and the way he met every single person's eyes with love and welcome. You can see it in the faces in the photos. He is one special man.
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Check out all the pics. More than any words I may write, they say it all.
And check out Uncle Noel and Trish's website... they do bush tucker walks and cultural tours and songs and dances and have stories on the ABC and work tirelessly for an Australia where every person is at home... They are beautiful, real, grounded humans. If you get a chance to spend time with them, just do it. Like their facebook page, support them in any way you can. They are the real deal. They are working to bring Australians together in an open hearted and generous way, where everyone is welcome and we are all equal.
http://nuragunyu.com.au/Home.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/nuragunyu/
Thank you Uncle Noel and Trish for coming in to our big beautiful Rewild family and helping us drop deeper in our journey of community and homecoming in the wild places. Every step I have taken this week I feel like my bare feet have kissed the earth and the earth has kissed them back. We had a dream camp. Thank you for helping weave that dream, and for including us in yours.
Oneness.
So much love from all of us
Camp Mama, Lee and the Bluegum tribe
