Posted on 21st of October 2014
“Koori” is the name the indigenous people of South Eastern Australia use for themselves, and it covers a number of different nations, peoples, tribes, cultures that spread across this part of the continent. Under this umbrella, many smaller groups of Koori had major differences from each other. (For a more Western context, imagine referring to Brits, French, Germans, Poles and Portuguese all as simply “Europeans.” True, but it glosses over major cultural differences.) But even if each sub-group of Koori had wildly different cultures languages and customs, they all shared a few important things in common.
The Koori had a mystical belief system based on the concept of “Dreaming,” by which they meant an alternate state of being where an individual had access to their entire ancestry, all the way back to the original creation of the world. Among the different Koori nations were countless variations of the “Dreamtime” – and this multiplicity could extend to the level of individuals. Every single Koori had a unique and different experience of Dreaming.
And of course, another word for Dreamtime is Truth.
What you students should take from the Koori is the knowledge that, while the Truth is universal and inviolate, it is also highly personal. And only with a personal connection and commitment can you hope to reach the Truth.
But beware, because your personal connection to the Truth is the most vulnerable place for corruption to seep in and poison you.
For the Koori, their personal Dreamtime Truth kept them free for millennia, until the arrival of a corrupt and brutal subjugating force at the end of the 18th century. A scant century later, the Koori were almost completely separated from their Truth, and have only recently begun to recover. We stand with them.