Deep Listening in ActionAn Ancient Community Development Model for the 21st Century

Photography Terry Melvin

Dr Laura Brearley and Friends

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The tepee was erected during a cross-cultural exchange between Australian and Canadian Indigenous people as part of the Deep Listening Project

Tepee at the Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada belonging to the Centre for Aboriginal Leadership and Management

Elder Tom Crane Bear, a Siksika Elder , conducts a smoking ceremony in the tepee during the cross-cultural exchange

Prayer

What is Deep Listening?

Vicki CouzensKeerray Woorroong / Gunditjmara Woman

Vicki Couzens

For Aboriginal people Deep Listening comes naturally

It’s about walking on the land

Softly quietly

And listening to the stories around the campfire

We’ve got to listen to the wind in the trees

Listen to the birds

It’s the feeling of a gift

A gift always comes back

Ron Murray Wamba Wamba

Elder Tom Crane BearBlackfoot Siksika

Everything is connected and doing its work

If the system breaks we all get sick

The trees purify the air that we breathe 

The rocks purify the water that we drink 

 

The trees drink that water

 

And give us branches and leaves

We know about the Creator who made everything

 

The planets and the sun

 

Deep Listening is an Aboriginal concept which translates as … Deep and respectful listening which builds community

What is Deep Listening?

Everything is holy

Deep Listening Circles

The ritual was underpinned by Deep Listening, an Aboriginal

concept which means deep and respectful listening which builds

community

We are all connected

敬 聽Respect Listen

Jing Ting

The characters for Deep Listening incorporate

Heaven

People

Earth

Ear

Eye

Heart

Respect

Authority

Ten

One

And the relationships between all of these

Traditional Chinese characters have been passed down through the ages

Each character has a story with multiple layers of meaning

Listening respectfully

The layers of meaning in this combination of characters involve …

Knowing our position in relation to Heaven and Earth

Listening in the context of surroundings – Land, People, Heaven and Earth

Oneness of mind and heart

Being connected to all things

Relationality to the Land

Understanding relationality

Giving your undivided attention

Giving yourself wholeheartedly

Involving total dedication

Treahna HammYorta Yorta

Dunghala Dilly Bag Treahna Hamm

There’s a strengthening of the bond we have when we get together

There’s a sharing of stories

In our stories we come to know ourselves

We look up at the sky and we see the clouds

We see the blue gaps in between

The gaps matter

They link the clouds together

The shapes we see in the clouds may differ

But the sky and the clouds connect us all

The world is not as we would like it …

Ben Okri

Ojibway of Tamiskaming First Nation

Don McIntyre

Things need to change

They must

And transform along the way

We start as blank canvases

If we’re stuck

We need to move forward

Moth is the transformer

The dark transformer

The Moth Medicine is helping us all to move through

We are at our most present in crisis

In the Shadowlands

There are no secrets

Time and space don’t work in the same way

Everything plays back into the spiral

 

There is a point where it stops being about us

Our work here is connected to a much larger project

Our community includes the Creator

We are in the protective arms of the Creator

 

France Trepanier in conversation with Laura Brearley

The Shearwater Project: Celebrating Biyadin

Building partnerships, cross-cultural understanding and environmental awareness

Billie’s message …

Please look after the shearwaters and look after our oceans for the shearwaters

Take good care of them and give them love

Make sure they come home safely

Cowes Primary School Grade 4

Cowes Primary School Grade 4

Cowes Primary School Grade 4

VERSE 1

Guyup guyup Birds

Wuwan gabuthdui Fly over the

Warrin warrin Sea

Nunnin all together All together

VERSE 2

Guyup guyup Birds

Wuwan gabuthdui Fly over the

Wurru wurru Sky

Nunnin all together All together

CHORUS

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Whistling in the wind

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Calling in the Spring

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Dancing on the wing

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Connecting everything 

VERSE 3

Guyup guyup Birds

Wuwan gabuthdui Fly on the

Mummut mummut Wind

Nunnin all together All together

VERSE 4

Guyup guyup Birds

Wuwan gabuthdui Fly on the

Wilam wilam Home

Nunnin all together All together

Chorus

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Whistling in the wind

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Calling in the Spring

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Dancing on the wing

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Connecting everything 

Chorus

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Whistling in the wind

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Calling in the Spring

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Dancing in the sun

Boonwurrung Biyadin … Connecting everyone 

further information

Dr Laura BrearleyCoordinator, Deep Listening Project

laura.brearley@tlc21.com.au0434 596800