Climate change, rather than abstraction and something separate from humans, could be seen as mis-communications, communication not understood, protocols and relationships under stress, if not actually broken. So that perhaps for the first time in a long time (which is an infinite spiralling time), there may be times when the clouds do not gather as expected, or when the harvest season may not follow as memory tells it should. Such changes are a challenge for Yolŋu people and many are grappling with their responses. Wukun tells us that such difficulties in communication, wayward messages and unexpected changes, mean that attention must be paid in ever deeper ways, that the communications of Country must be engaged with receptively, with humility and through an understanding of our mutual entanglements. For example, Rrawun Maymuru, one of the sisters’ sons worries about the cues that he may have missed, such as dying and missing casuarina trees. Others are wondering what it means when certain flowers flower ‘too early’, out of sync with the songspirals. They are working with the changes, attending to what is happening, what messages may be being communicated, paying attention and re- sponding in the best way they can with and as place, acknowledging protocols under strain; perhaps even broken, and in need of healing.
Gathering of the Clouds -- Attending to Indigenous understandings of time and climate through songspirals
Geoforum 108 (2020) 295–304