Makarrata: peace making through truth telling

This post is long overdue. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been continuing with creative projects. But I’m circling back to circles, where the circling is manifesting as a square containing five circles. This small piece (440x440mms – almost 1’6” squared) came about in order to use up the leftover circular florets after having decided what was needed for the other two panels that I was in the process of finishing. It seemed more manageable to meet my insistent, nagging and self-imposed desire to get something, anything finalised – just to get something finished! This small piece seemed manageable to bring that aim to fruition, but it has taken many more months than I expected to do it, and then write about it. The inspiration started with a painting that a Facebook friend posted called “Possum dreaming” by Molly Peterson (thanks Kathryn) an Indigenous woman living in South Australia. I had kept a copy on file. Then a nearby close friend had a smaller version of the same formation, painted by a local Indigenous person to the Blue Mountains, that she had given me as a gift (thank you Sheila). These paintings were the fertile ground on which to plant my own leftover circles. It wasn’t until I placed them into that formation that the symbolic significance brought to mind the power of the circle, and its practical applications experienced in my own life.

The background fabric is an original Indigenous design from the Babbara Women’s Centre, which is situated on the coast of the Arafura Sea in the Northern Territory, a few hundred kilometres from Darwin. It is a collective of women from twelve language groups of the surrounds that supports the economic independence of Indigenous women in community of Maningrida, Arnhem Land. Designs for the beautifully crafted screen prints are drawn from local wild foods and flora, and the ancestral stories from their ways of life – their unique lives, living on country. It amazes me to think how far back in time these stories originated, passed down through sixty millennia of generations caring for the seas, land and its creatures. I first came across these stunning hand printed fabrics five or more years ago while browsing in Spotlight and was immediately taken by their simple boldness of the repeated impressions, carved into lino and screen printed onto very strong cotton backing colours. I have chosen one piece from my stash as a background for the five-star formation. The one used here is a fish trap, created by Deborah Wurrkidj, a dark earthy colour, reminding me of our shared origins: the Great Mother. (Others with the brighter backgrounds have been used in a lap-sized quilt, with a more modern take.) There are five florets, one in the centre and four at each corner. Those at the four corners of course relate to the directions of North, South, East and West – the directions called when we sit in the sacred circle, for each to bring their powers – fire, water, air and earth into our circle. They support each other through their colour-ways, and although being positioned at corners they are not oppositional. On the contrary, they connect with the centre as well as moving into the wider circle, albeit being housed by a square. How does that happen you might ask…?

What happens when there is a deliberate intention, a conscious, focussed act of listening, hearing. Getting what another is saying without applying ideologies, rules, analysis or personal judgement. In spiritual circles, that occurs where the centre circle sits – the circle that contains the truth of another, absorbs it and takes it as a reality for the one speaking – without the judgment of others sitting in the circle being passed, or advice being offered. It is the power of the union of shared experiences is shared as they circle around, with each other’s experience being acknowledged through listening. In hearing the story of the other an ‘autochthonic’, indigenous (both words meaning from and belonging to earth) self-induced revelation is allowed, given space to emerge. It’s the power of ‘deep listening’ to Earth and other that comes from the heart. It makes a spiritual connection, one that is non-judgmental as so often happens when listening from a particular interest blocks the other. 

The practice in women’s spirituality circles is to call the four cardinal directions, NSEW, represented here in the four corners of the image. They also represent the four elements of air, earth, fire and water. As they relate to the travel of Earth’s circuit around Sun in Southern Hemisphere from where I live, on the East Coast of Australia, Fire is a northern aspect, while water is in the south; air comes from the eastern horizon, and earth is directly western. I’ve explored these conventions in my PhD, and the ritual for creating safe space in a circle. Another source for considering the power of the circle is a small book by Jean Shinoda Bolen “The millionth circle”, in which she explores the power of circular gatherings to inspire and spark the critical number needed for both integration and realising the need for change, and the essential guide to women’s circles. At the end of a gathering, we are invited to remember that ‘the circle is open, but not broken.’ There is always possibility arising from within a circle.