Learnings from a 2000 year old tree.

Although Shapes and Sounds predominantly speaks to the Asian diaspora community in Australia, it is fair to say that most people reading this are in fact some kind of diaspora too.

Unless you are indigenous to the land on which you reside, you are a “something”-generation diaspora person.

And this means that no matter how many generations you have been in Australia, you are on an equal playing field as all other immigrants when it comes to being connected to the land.

For me, I’ve always liked being in nature but it has only been in recent years, after talking with so many of my ex-clients who are First Nations people, that I really began to understand what connection to land feels like and that for me, that land is Japan not Australia. Becoming aware of this, has given me a far greater sense of humility and respect as I live on this land.

As much as we all want to feel a sense of belonging in Australia, I’ve sometimes felt that it is easier to understand myself as a visitor (in it’s truest form) instead. Yes, I have as much right to work, play and be seen in this country as anyone else but in reality, all of us who are non-First Nations people, are all visitors to this land, and perhaps pretty crappy visitors too.

Let me tell you a slightly tangential story to expand on this idea…

On my last trip back to Japan, I visited a 2000 year old camphor tree and I won’t go into too much detail as I suspect this may alienate people, but I definitely had a spiritual experience when I was in the presence of this tree.

In Japan, because we are such an old culture, places and things of spiritual importance are decorated with rope and paper to signify their importance. As I watched and followed the small crowd of people gathered around this tree, I copied their gesture of placing my hands on one part of the tree, closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths. As I did so, I felt like all the sounds of chatter around me softened and this smooth whooshing sound became louder. A light of some sort moved through me in time with my breath and I felt like a channel for the Ki (chi, prana etc) moving through the earth, the tree, the sky and me. When I was ready, I opened my eyes and I was back amongst the crowd, the shrine and present again in my day.

This kind of experience in Japan is not new for me but it has only been in the last few years that I have had the language to describe what I have been experiencing. And after this most recent tree experience, it really got me thinking about how so many of us actually live without having these profound moments in nature because so many of us live away from our ancestral lands.

And what I really want to say here is that I think that this can get dangerous because it means that we rely on our willpower and conscience to protect our natural surroundings, rather than being pulled by a force and a spirit far greater than any of us. Perhaps this is why humans cause so much destruction wherever they are, because when we are connected to land, it wouldn’t even be an option to cut down a forest or bulldoze through a mountain.

My learnings so far:

• I now know that a deeper way of being with nature exists. And because I now know, I have a far greater sense of humility and respect for the land which we call Australia and for the people who know and belong here.

• I’m also not just sitting around respecting the land, I’m actively trying to learn more and financially contribute to First Nations peoples’ causes.

• This humility has opened me up to learn more about the land and has pulled me to make more conscious choices in my slowly developing pursuit of greater sustainability.

PS. It took me a while to get my head around how old 2000 years-old is, but essentially, this tree was born in 0020AD - how wild is that!