Circling the square with Karl Telfer

Circling the square

with Karl Telfer

Story by Nina Keath. Photograph by Jason Porter.

Above: Karl Telfer at Port Noarlunga – Site 3 of the Trilbuke Dreaming Track.

One Autumn morning on a day of liquid sunshine, Karl Telfer and I meet to talk. I’m not sure what to expect but by the end of our conversation we both burst out laughing. Karl is the first to say what we’re both thinking, ‘I hope this isn’t going to be too full on for your article.’ We talk back and forth for a while before Karl chuckles and decides, ‘Let’s do it. I think we’re ready to have this conversation.’ I think so too. So, let’s begin.

Karl Telfer, a highly respected senior man from the Mullawirra Meyunna dry forest family clan – known today as the Kaurna Nation from the Adelaide region – has never done a Welcome to Country. He’s chosen not to because of a question our community still needs to answer. We’re standing at the entrance to the Gemtree Eco Trail where Karl runs cultural tours, when Karl articulates the question with straightforward clarity, ‘How can I welcome you to country that I don’t have any birthrights to?’ It’s an important question with no easy answers. But it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Karl is delivering cultural tours on land owned by others while he has no ancestral lands of his own to welcome us to. Karl believes in land tenure and Traditional Ownership and says this is where Native Title has failed. ‘How can we truly be Traditional Owners and custodians of culture if we have no country on which to practise our culture?’ he asks. ‘I see two ways of communicating bi-cultural understanding of country: our role should be as stewards (current landholders) and cultural custodians (Traditional Owners).’ For many it’s an uncomfortable proposition, which Karl acknowledges, ‘When you want to talk to people about history, truth, reconciliation and truth telling, it gets a bit hard because you need to ask, do people want to experience that?’

This is where Karl brings people into his circle. ‘I respectfully create a space for people to feel safe and I bring them into country through ceremony. I acknowledge that we can’t change history, and that this is where we are. There is still much to do, but it is better we journey together. I use storytelling and the humour that lives inside of those stories, because it shows our human connection, which brings out the smiles and laughter. They feel more connected,’ he says. But laughter and connection don’t take away the need for accountability. ‘People that are part of the current system need to accept some responsibility. If you’re going to walk on country, walk softly, cos you’re walking with me and alongside the footsteps of my ancestors, from the first sunrise,’ Karl explains.

This commitment to shared accountability has led Karl to engage in what he calls ‘bi-cultural practice,’ or ‘walking together.’ Like his growing relationship with Gemtree, he’s sharing cultural knowledge with groups across the Fleurieu. It’s the connection and sharing that matters. Karl says, ‘I just step towards everyone now. I’m trying to build respectful communication first because a lot of people don’t have an understanding of my world. Now they’re beginning to say, “Ah OK, I’m starting to get it”.’

They’re starting to get that our current system is failing, and we need to find new ways of thinking and being. And they’re starting to get that traditional knowledge and governance practices can help solve many of our modern social and environmental challenges. For Karl, the greatest problem is that we’ve separated ourselves from the natural world. ‘People are on top of nature, not in it. They want to be in it, but they don’t know how,’ he says. ‘We are all programmed to think in squares. You’ve got mental and environmental breakdown. You wake up, you go to work, you go from one square to the next. You’re controlled by it. There’s no nurturing in the system, just pressure. Where did the system come from?’

Karl continues, answering his own question. ‘This country was founded and federated by men who weren’t sitting in the land and who didn’t include any voices of women. Australia is founded on the mentality of taking, not sharing, and I see the effect of the wedge of division in the many faces throughout our communities. I see people pushed to the dark corners of the squares where the shadows are and where most choose not to look. We’re decoupling from our natural law. The system is tearing it apart.’

But Karl says there is an alternative – the way of the circle: ‘All first nations people come from circle understanding. When you’re sitting in a circle, it goes around continuously. There’re no pointy ends. It’s softer. The vibration is totally different to a square. The sharing that goes on is to do with living cycles.’

Karl believes we need to examine our self-importance: ‘We’ve placed ourselves right at the top but that’s not where we come from. We’ve got so focused on power and prestige and it’s a distraction. In our way, a leader – to use that English word – isn’t one fella sitting above. No, the leaders walk behind and lift everyone up. They’ve got the wisdom. They’re watching. You only need to look into the animal kingdom. They do the same. It’s in nature itself.’

This is why creation stories are often about animals and why animal totems are so important in Aboriginal cultures. Karl says, ‘I thought some of the stories I could tell could give people understanding about our ways of understanding living culture. I’m connected to very significant spiritual places in my country, but we need more people to be aware and come together around standing together to protect them. Once they’re gone, that’s it. And yet they’ve been there since the first sunrise.’