Belonging - planted in land
experiencing belonging in a particular landscape
Australia - the land of the long weekend!
This long weekend commemorates Australia Day, a day surrounded by much controversy. On the one hand, many celebrate colonial settlement. On the other hand, many mourn the way colonisation displaced First Nations people from their Country. As well as outer displacement, the Indigenous People’s inner experience of belonging was also displaced because it was intrinsically connected with the landscape of their birth.
Humankind’s intrinsic longing to belong
As a non-indigenous woman educated in the field of Western spiritual practice education, I have extensively explored humankind’s intrinsic longing to belong. (See my website www.treeoflifespirituality.com) My body of work has focused on creating Stories of Life that give meaning and purpose to our existence and mortality at any given time and place in our history. Authentic Western Stories of Life, or meta-narratives, must align with current science-based understandings of the nature of Reality, and the origins of our world. In our post-secular society, meta-narratives may be rooted in either a religious or secular worldview.
When a particular Story of Life resonates with our mind and heart, it provides an inner shelter of belonging. We know who we are, why we are here, and how we are to live. This inner shelter makes us feel at home in the world, allowing us to live and act with integrity and authenticity. Without this Shelter, we can experience feelings of disconnection and displacement. In essence, we find belonging through a coherent Story of how the world came to be and continues to emerge.
Planting our experience of belonging in land
As I reflect on First Nations’ displacement from Country by colonisation, I ponder on what a Story of Life planted in the land might look like for me and us as non-Indigenous Australians. Our current sense of belonging, whether religious or secular, is often tied to a set of norms and beliefs about life and land, rather than in a particular landscape. This situates belonging outside of land. As a consequence, land is viewed as something to possess; to use and exploit for our benefit. Within such a context, the idea of belonging to land seems absurd.
Why bother?
Why should we make the effort to plant our experience of belonging in an actual landscape? Engaging with the landscape allows us to explore, listen, and feel the heartbeat of Life within it. In the process, all life- humankind, flora & fauna, and Earth itself- could flourish. Such a shift would mean that while we nurture our intrinsic need to belong, we would also tend to the needs of all living things. Given the challenges posed by current global climate conditions, embracing a sense of belonging to the land could be imperative.
As non-indigenous Australians, we cannot experience connection to land in the same way as the First Nations people. We can, however, allow their experience of connection to Country to inspire us to seek our experience of belonging to land. Is this a new frontier for Western spiritual exploration?
