The future will be written with the language of the past | Marlikka Perdrisat | TEDxSydney

How has the natural world shaped language, and how does that language now shape how you see the world? First Nations people have spent tens of thousands of years customising laws, culture, and language, specific to their Country. These words don't have an easy translation in English. But describe concepts, cultural practices and knowledge we can all learn from. Words to describe cultural practices, attachment to land and place, and our relationships through both blood and skin. A system of relationships which allows a newborn to be a grandparent, a person to be related to the wind, or a tree whose name can only be said by women. Marlikka Perdrisat works across academia, film, and law to spread awareness of First Law. Recently, Marlikka has published a collection of academic papers including Indigenous Natural and First Law in Planetary Health and The Determinants of Planetary Health: an Indigenous Consensus Perspective. With a special life created by living with Nyikina Country and growing through her multiple degrees. Marlikka is in a unique position to share how First Languages can develop your relationship with Country, now and into the future. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@SarahBoyd002]

Thank you ❤️🙏🏻

[@pauljung3534]

ME: Why am I alive?
OLD WOMAN: Because everything else is.
ME: No. I mean the purpose.
OLD WOMAN: That is the purpose. To learn about your relatives.
ME: My family?
OLD WOMAN: Yes. The moon, stars, rocks, trees, plants, water, insects, birds, mammals. Your whole family. Learn about that relationship. How you’re moving through time and space together. That’s why you’re alive. ~ Richard Wagamese
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you
And know there is more
That you can't see, can't hear
Can't know except in moments
Steadly growing, and in languages
That aren't always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty. ~ 'Eagle Poem' by Joy Harjo

[@pauljung3534]

"For the Amahuaca, the Koyukon, the Apache, and the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Australia - as for numerous other indigenous peoples - the coherence of human language is inseparable from the coherence of the surrounding ecology, from the expressive vitality of the more-than-human terrain. It is the animate earth that speaks; human speech is but a part of that vaster discourse." ~ David Abram
"Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life's breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth." ~ David Suzuki
"If we are to attempt to understand Indigenous philosophy it has to begin with the profound obligation to land." ~ Bruce Pascoe
"Intuition is the language of our loved ones. It is a knowing beyond reason that they are still right here." ~ Angie Corbett-Kuiper
"In this stillness, I am the trees alive with singing. I am the sky everywhere at once. I am the snow and the wind bearing stories across geographies and generations. I am the light everywhere and descending. I am my heart evoking drum song. I am my spirit rising. In the smell of these sacred medicines burning, I am my prayers and my meditation, and I am time captured fully in this now. I am a traveller on a sacred journey through this one shining day.” ~ Richard Wagamese
“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” ~ Toni Morrison
"Go as a river... " ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
"Voices... echoing from heart, heritage and homeland -- resonate coherence, expanse and eternity." ~ Paul Jung