The Red Hibiscus: Anthology Vol. 8 Preface
Our spirituality is a oneness and interconnectedness with all that lives and breathes, even with all that does not live or breathe.
— Mudrooroo, Aboriginal writer
Aboriginal spirituality, Aboriginal writer Mudrooroo says, “is a feeling of oneness, of belonging”, a connectedness with “deep innermost feelings”. Everything else is secondary.
For the Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal people from north-west South Australia the law of Kanyini implies that everybody is responsible for each other. It is a principle of connectedness that underpins Aboriginal life. And because of connection, Kanyini teaches to look away from oneself and towards community: “We practise Kanyini by learning to restrict the ‘mine-ness’, and to develop a strong sense of ‘ours-ness’,” explains Aboriginal Elder Uncle Bob Randall.
He continues: “We do not separate the material world of objects we see around us with our ordinary eyes, and the sacred world of creative energy that we can learn to see with our inner eye. …. We work through ‘feeling’, what white people call intuitive awareness. White people,” Uncle Bob says, “separate things out, even the relationship between their minds and their bodies, but especially between themselves and other people and nature… and spirit.”
All elements of the Earth are interconnected: the people, the plants and animals, land forms and celestial bodies. Everything is related to each other.
Throughout my life, rivers have always been a homing beacon for me. Whenever I connect to the spirit of my local river, I feel a renewed relationship with the Godhead, land, ether, and the Dreamtime as the origin of all knowledge, inspiration and possibility. It is my great pleasure and honor to open this edition of our anthology with The Nile, a poem by Essama Chiba about a sacred river from the stars. A daughter of Amira Amir (a pioneer in the Egyptian film industry and international celebrity), Ms Chiba is an internationally acclaimed writer who has also had a career with BBC and Arab TV world.
Please follow Essama on a lavender journey through the waters of the eternal Nile where divine siblings Isis and Osiris awaken your own magical child basking in sunlight…
Diana Thoresen
Palm Cove, Queensland
17/12/2020
