An Indigenous Metaphysicist, Childhood Happy Place and Me

Dylan Berger

……..

Sitting cross-legged on the grass under the shade of an old gum, pulling out and playing with the little green blades leaves me feeling like a primary school student. The midday sun drifts across the sky and kookaburras visit throughout our conversation. 

Sitting with Dylan, I developed a deeper and more enriched view of the place I love so deeply. I now know how to use the word ‘metaphysics’ in a sentence and can talk about 'post-humanism' like I know what I'm saying (only just!). This Land is deeply special to me and sitting in my hometown, with an Indigenous metaphysicist teaching me ancient knowledge systems and speaking fluently in Gumbaynggirr  language is a scene I wish generations of Ancestors could witness. I am lucky to have traveled to the remote stretches of Arnhem Land and Desert Country in north-west Australia but this knowledge, this ancient and sacred way of life has existed alongside my own home and childhood the whole time. 

I am indebted to Dylan for his openness to share knowledge. For excusing my naivety and overlooking ignorance and for sitting for an afternoon, his humble and easy laugh drifting to the wind.

Growing Up

Dylan is an Indigenous man with connections to Dunghutti, Gumbaynggirr, Biripi and Yuin Country. Much of his childhood was spent on his grandparent's farm; a 68-acre plot that sits on a small, isolated stretch of land. It is nestled between two rivers that meander towards the ocean. As a large part of my own childhood was sitting in my grandparent’s old caravan with electric blue cupboards overlooking the same river, I know the area well. The ridges and plateaus of the mountain range stretch along the horizon to the west, and the sound of the Pacific Ocean crumbling along the shore, hums off to the east. It’s beautiful.

The farm was ‘purchased’ by Dylan's great-grandfather in the 40s. Yet, back then, as he was Indigenous, the land needed to be managed by the mission master and later, transferred to the family as it was illegal for an Indigenous person to own land. Dylan spent his childhood with family exploring the island’s shores and inlets. He says the farm ‘didn't have any power, electricity or anything like that’. They cooked everything on the fire. Dylan tells me 'when they were initially putting power through that section of land, they said because there's Indigenous people up on that property, they don't really need... We found the deeds and they just wrote ‘blacks on it... Don't need electricity’. The place now has electricity, but it took a fight to eventually have this deemed ‘unconstitutional’. His great-grandfather was the last initiated person in their family and passed away in 1967. His great-grandfather, ‘couldn't pass on his culture to his children, because they'd get in trouble. It was debilitating in a way because he had to live life as dictated by his initiation rules’. As Dylan speaks about his upbringing, he mentions a ‘swarm of family members’, blends of first cousins, a sister, aunties and parents. His childhood existing within an ecosystem of collectivism. It fascinates me that Dylan and I grew up not 20kms from each other, played basketball for rival clubs in our teen years yet our experience of this place, our cultural upbringing and relational understanding of the world around us has been so varied. Dylan says he can't really understand a non-Indigenous perspective of the world; ‘I didn't actually really know what a non-Indigenous life was like. I'm still learning about it. I turned 30 last year’.

In reflection Dylan speaks about how he is happy with that turnaround. That in three generations, his ‘grandparent’s generation were thinking that they were raised by the last people who would probably ever know their way of life’ and now we are seeing young people raised in culture and language.

‘Wow’.

Education

Having known Dylan for a period of time, I have seen that his intelligence is on a wavelength that I’ll never be able to understand. I don’t have the ability to grasp the depths and complexities of his layers of thought. He is currently studying a PhD in Indigenous metaphysics and ontology. ‘What?’ I hear you say.

Essentially it is the study of the world through different worldviews. Dylan is focusing on how Indigenous knowledge systems help one to interpret, make sense of and digest the world through language. A particular concept that he touches on, which resonates with me is ‘post-humanism’, a Western theory. Dylan explains this as-

‘‘the whole idea about it is you try and deconstruct human-centred mindset. It’s not you in the middle and everything else around you. It's humans just amongst everything else. It removes you as a priority and then you have to start thinking about the well-being of the whole picture rather than us. And it’s this theory that's quite similar to Indigenous views of the world, but when they stitch it together and they propose it as a theory, it helps you see the world a bit different’’.

This idea is seen through Indigenous knowledge and language. Dylan says that -

‘’Language is really important because it encodes our well-being, so it has a place. Our trees are really important because they provide homes and nutrients for the ecosystems around them. All these things are important because we recognise how they're related to each other. Regardless of whether humans are here or not, these things will still be important to each other. I like that. Whether we're here or not, they'll still be important to each other. Indigenous languages teach us that because it's the way that we talk about language. When you fragment a language, you start to tear away all of this. When I think about English, I don't know if it's just me, but it's mainly about communication and the use of it as a trade language.’’  

Studying at the intersection of linguistics and philosophy has taken Dylan over the world. Recently he returned from Canada and Aotearoa (NZ) to discuss research and studies with other academics. They had conversations about the diverging nature of global Indigenous knowledge systems and their own connection to ancestral beings. Dylan explains this like a tree, Indigenous knowledge around the world branches off, each grounded in a holistic, relational system of thought.

Here, he experienced hiding workshops, making teepees and learning the cultural nuances and protocols of Indigenous peoples of Saskatchewan, like you cannot step over the logs that you are using to build your teepee. He is already involved in a longitudinal study of the impact of language on wellbeing for young Mob. Yet, from this work, Dylan hopes to ‘sort of map out a constellation of perspectives’ and be a conduit to communicate what his community think and need on a larger scale. He sees that historically; there has not been a strong connection between academics and the Indigenous community which he says we need to address. Through his work, he is bridging this gap.

The Ocean

It is these studies that have helped him articulate and give terminology to the relationship he feels to the natural world. Dylan feels as comfortable below the horizon as above it. He says that as a ‘Yuin man, [scuba diving] is the most culturally aligned thing I could do as far as connecting with my grandmother's Country, being in the water and seeing ‘down there’. Dylan says, noticing the symbiotic and mutualistic relationships that exist within the ocean, it becomes so obvious for him that we as humans are existing within a much larger scale of life. A joy washing over his face as he tells me of marine photography, scuba travels past and planned, and laughs that he is spending way too much money on this slippery slope.

In all of this, Dylan hopes that non-Indigenous people can find meaning in their connection to Place and Country. He says that for each of us, our (Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike) identities are tied to place. We each know the patterns of Country; the roads to avoid in peak hour, we notice if a tree is missing on our evening walking route and how far the high tide comes up. Dylan has such a sunny disposition and assured sense of self that it is clear to me; believing that you are only a small piece in the wonderfully complex, intelligent, magical system of this orbiting blue marble leaves your steps with a lightness and outlook, content.