Work · Indigenous Philosophies
Some Thoughts about the Philosophical Underpinnings of Aboriginal Worldviews
Essay setting out two precepts of Aboriginal philosophy – “the Land is the Law” and “you are not alone in the world” – and deriving from them a custodial ethic, a relational idea of the self, non-coercive autonomy and a logic that admits many valid perspectives.
Introduction
First published in 1999 in the journal Worldviews, the essay was reprinted in 2008 in the Australian Humanities Review; the reprint notes that it draws on university courses Graham taught in the 1980s. It presents Indigenous Australian philosophy as more than a “survivalist kit” for understanding nature: a system for realising the fullest potential of human emotion and experience, in which being human is a skill to be developed. Land is a sacred entity, not property; the relation between land and people is the template for all social relations, and the land is “the great teacher”. From this follow a custodial ethic, an autonomy respected through example rather than instruction, and a Law that Graham presents as natural law, not made by humans.
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