60,000 Years of Indigenous Wisdom From Down Under W/ Tyson Yunkaporta

Highlights

Inclusive Pronouns

• Tyson Yunkaporta suggests using inclusive pronouns like "us two" to emphasize interconnectedness.
• This challenges the separation created by traditional pronouns like "I" and "you". Transcript: Aubrey Marcus Shame in your book you use that as a pronoun us too yeah yeah and it's uh for me i receive that as an intentional way to try and dismantle this myth of separation that we have that tries to Place everybody else's other than us yeah you're different than me you're different than me you're this you're this color you're this identity you're this religion you're this belief Tyson Yunkaporta System you're this ideology no you're us too yeah well things when you're translating um you know you're translating across cultures and languages you know stuff gets lost in english You know and um yeah just that those limited first person pronouns and i'm not going to force you to use my indigenous pronouns or anything so don't panic um but yeah it just uh yeah so if We translate the forms you know little aspects of the grammars and verb morphology or whatever you know into english and just sort of tweak that meaning a little bit there it can yeah That can carry more i could write like three chapters on what it is to be connected you know or i could just call you or call me and us too like and just do it there yeah (via) ^rwhi886720675

Fighting Pronoun

• Tyson Yunkaporta shares an anecdote about a specific pronoun used only when initiating a fight.
• This highlights how language reflects cultural values around conflict. Transcript: Tyson Yunkaporta Meaning, you know, like us belonging to him, you know, us belonging to her, us belonging to them, you know that's really specific but there is there's one um pronoun for like i as a separate Thing but you only use it if you're trying to start a fight interesting yeah and you don't you don't know who you don't know who you want to start a fight with you just know that you want to Fight so you go and you start walking you know through the community and you just start yelling that word what's the word i was just like nay nay nay nay nay nay let's fucking go like you Know so nay is like that part that's i like that self in relation you know then double it up. It's like blocking it off and saying, I'm me. Man, I'm going to smash somebody. And eventually someone will answer, come out. (via) ^rwhi886720676

A Fight Story

• Tyson Yunkaporta recounts a fight where he intervened in a domestic violence situation.
• This story explains traditional fighting rules and community conflict resolution. Transcript: Tyson Yunkaporta And this was where the fellow had done the wrong thing. Yeah. I don't know, so my niece comes in one night, and she's like, Uncle, Uncle, help. Like, he's killing her, he's killing her. And I'm like, what the? Aubrey Marcus And I come, so I went running around um yeah next door so you're in so you're in you're in yeah some hut there's huts around to set the scene yeah and there's some there's a man doing the wrong Tyson Yunkaporta Thing you know he's um he's hurting his woman using yeah some physical domestic type of situation yeah to try and force her to i don't know whatever men think they're doing when they're Doing that dominant stuff um you know yeah and someone came to you and said uncle uncle yes so like bad shit going down yeah and so i got between them you know and did you go, nah, nah. You know, push back. No, no, no. Because it wasn't about you. There weren't people around yet. People were starting to come in, you know. But it wasn't all there. He was, yeah, he'd gone the wrong way. Like he'd gone into, he wasn't in the right way of fighting or anything like that he was just murderous you know yeah and um so i don't know it kicked off like for a bit and just enough to get Him back away from her and the kids and everything few people coming around but he didn't wait for everyone to show up he just started laying in and um and then i decided all right well i'm Just gonna see i'll see where this goes like you're ineffective right now you know because he's not in he's not fighting proper way you know um Yeah, so I stopped shaping up and I just stepped Back and just put my hands to the sides and I said, you go on, knock yourself out. Which weirdly he did, literally. Yeah, he was like, you know, doing the big haymakers smack. And he did dislocate my jaw, was, I don't know, that was annoying for a few weeks. I got like that glass jaw. I've always had a problem with that one. Yeah. But I never noticed until after, you know, and then I'm like, oh, again. Anyway, you lose weight that way. That's all right um yeah anyway um so then he come in for a really big hit like really big one and he missed and he fell down and he knocked himself out yeah and then like when he woke up then He's like he's running around he's getting other people going ah hey he hit me he knocked me out hey come up to me for no reason good tyson he's doing and then he immediately started playing The video this mother anyway so he chased me around trying to find me i bet I was gone, finished. Kids were all right. They had something else to be angry about. Yeah. I don't know. He came up to me the next day and tried to have another go. But I was just like, no, it's not happening. You do it the right way. You call everyone out and we'll punch on. We'll see how it goes and then i don't know so i showed up for that later um and he showed up and he gave me 50 bucks and said sorry uh-huh (via) ^rwhi886720677

Ritualized Conflict

• Intentional communities often lack ritualized conflict resolution, leading to escalating tensions.
• Tyson Yunkaporta highlights women's need for healthy aggression outlets. Transcript: Tyson Yunkaporta Court and then after that it was all laughter and yeah and you got it that's where um i keep telling like all these intentional communities always want to can you talk to us you know we're Doing an intentional community and um yeah and even the old established ones like them that one in scotland and yeah a few of them famous ones where they have problems you know down the Track you know there was one where there was an arsonist was just burning their houses down in the community but every one of them like the problem like i look and i go yeah it's not gonna Last you know because they're all it's always about peace and calm like you know and they're all about relatedness but it's not really relatedness it's just like this idea of you know Friendliness you know peacefulness calm you know and everything you know okay respectfully um you know i have some feelings about what you've just done and we're gonna have to have A healing circle and you know what right they're still feeling it they're like talking soft um but they're not soft you know so that shit escalates ah thank you yeah that that's just gonna Escalate so i keep telling him if you don't have um like a ritual a ritual way of like working out your conflict aggression you know if you haven't got an outlet where you know and not not Just this idea that men do that it's like no no no women estrogen is the most volatile fucking substance on the planet, bros. Like, women need, yeah. If you look up Aboriginal fight videos, like on YouTube, most of them is women fighting, like doing the street fighting. You know, women have got to punch on. Women have got to have some way to do the aggression thing and get that out. (via) ^rwhi886720678

Gender Borders

• Tyson Yunkaporta points out that cultures focused on expansion and empire-building often create borders around genders.
• This is often done to control women and weaken them, domesticating them, which is not their natural state. Transcript: Tyson Yunkaporta There's really nothing much left that's there. I said border work that happens with, I don't know, any culture that wants to fuck around and do empires, whatever, they always end up doing borders around the genders. And a lot of that's around like trying to control women um you know so that that's the first thing that goes like you you know when our culture is really domesticated when the women are Sort of weaker you know become like the weaker sex you know because they're not really like that that they're formidable well i mean in the natural state they're squatting yeah you know Aubrey Marcus Tongue out like pushing a baby out of there splitting their body to birth something like yeah yeah with a primal scream i mean proper big yeah exactly exactly like like that that is that That is natural state. And to remember (via) ^rwhi886720679

Women's Power

• Traditional Aboriginal cultures empower women, holding them as key figures in creation and destruction.
• This contrasts with modern portrayals of femininity as soft and fragile. Transcript: Tyson Yunkaporta Women's law, mother's law, grandmother's law, auntie law, you know, women's law is like, you know, that creation of destruction, like hold the keys to life and death, you know, like They're the ones that like control that. Yeah. Like they have that authority. So it's, yeah. Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's kind of hard to look at these, sometimes these ideas of femininity as this kind of soft, fragile, cloistered sort of thing. (via) ^rwhi886720680

Hierarchy and Scapegoating

• Empire maintains hierarchy by positioning individuals above others, creating a chain of scapegoating.
• This fosters a preference for scarcity and control over abundance and sharing. Transcript: Aubrey Marcus And then you just pass that on until there's finally that final scapegoat that ultimately you can sacrifice. That's it. Tyson Yunkaporta But then it's just, it's like, well, what's that, uh, what has to change in a person to make them want to shit on someone? Like, you know, um like what would make you prefer scarcity as long as you can shit on someone else uh to abundance that you have to share with everybody else you know like you could have Extreme abundance but everybody gets the same Like what has to happen to a person for them to stop wanting that and move into preferring like a shitty life of scarcity, but at least where They're on top of other people, you know, like what has to go wrong with them? (via) ^rwhi886720681

Albino Boy

• Tyson Yunkaporta shares the story of Albino Boy, banished due to superstition, who builds a powerful stone site.
• This tale warns against gossip and showcases resilience. Transcript: Aubrey Marcus Well, you were telling a story about Albino Boy, which is actually a story about the certain tribe getting superstitious, casting out. Why don't you tell that story? That a story becomes a type of moral a lesson to imprint values on on a culture because you retell this story about what happens so tell the story of albino boy and tell the story of what Tyson Yunkaporta You know yeah well i i don't have the right to like tell the story um like i can refer to it and summarize you know, kind of thing. It's from Wonka Mara people. And yeah, the elders did give me some songs that I can sing around that. But just with people, not with digital, etc. And yeah, stuff like that. But just generally, if we're talking out into the world yeah that was um yeah a long ago story um of yeah albino boy was born and then there was just a couple of like just shitty people you Know started rumors gossip you know about him and saying he was a devil and all this sort of thing and ended up creating a big moral panic so so so a lot of setting setting the scene everybody's Aubrey Marcus Everybody's dark-skinned yeah and then an albino boy is born someone with white skin which is a natural aberration that happens to all animals including humans Yep. So this happened, and it happened to a human. And then some people got that kind of xenophobic, ethnocentric, this is not part of us, and they started being assholes. Tyson Yunkaporta Yeah. Aubrey Marcus But that wasn't like the natural response of the people. Tyson Yunkaporta Just a couple of people. It took a couple of troublemakers to sort of get those lies going get that wrong story and you know like um you know a lie goes 100 miles before the truth gets out of bed you know you know how That works so you know you've got the old people who are sitting there and then it's like oh okay we're gonna have to investigate this devil thing and so they're sitting down and doing Their due diligence with you know, he's obviously not a devil. But anyway, all right, well, I guess we've got to do what we have to do to prove that he's not. But that takes time. And sorry, too late then. It's like everybody's in a panic. And so they kick this boy out. So for me, it's part of that, you know, it's that cautionary tale, you know, it's about that problem that can happen with gossip, false witness, you know, especially where, you know, You can take facts and just lean on, lean into those ones and lean away from certain other ones and just skew things, skew things away from where they should be. It's that wrong story there anyway they did that wrong story and so that boy ended up getting banished out on his own you know still when he was just a boy like 10 years old you know and um Yeah and he ended up like he um yeah he didn't mess around he didn't skip leg day he got into it out there he was like he got real strong like strong lifting rocks you know he ended up building A really big stone site and you can see it it's like it's big in the stone engine you know lots of standing stones processions um stones that have been like carved down and polished and Shaped and then another one sat just balancing you know on top and it's been there for thousands of years just like that and you touch it and it wobbles and it's like how is that still there Um yeah so yeah he made this big stone site and um you know and just became really powerful sort of magic man and ended up being a revered entity in that place and someone is still revered Today. (via) ^rwhi886720682

Relational Ontology

• Aboriginal cosmology views everything as alive and interconnected within a relational ontology.
• Objects are categorized by their relationships and roles, not just physical traits. Transcript: Aubrey Marcus Well, I mean, it is, it is a whole different world. Everything's alive. Tyson Yunkaporta Yeah. Everything's alive, but everything's, you know, connected as well. Everything's in relation. Everything's in relation. Everything has a totemic classification and relation. What does that mean? Totemic classification. You know so i mean so you might divide everything into like categories of like light blood heavy blood uh or something like this so usually there's a moiety kind of division and everything That is exists as either this classification or this classification and then it breaks down the other way and then there's diagonals and how things are related but then there's avoidance Relations as well things that can't go together things that do go together and that's like so everything in creation ends up being modeled in that way it's really complex you know um So (via) ^rwhi886720683

Communing with Land

• Tyson Yunkaporta emphasizes announcing oneself to the land and its entities before entering.
• This reciprocal act demonstrates respect and opens access to the environment's wisdom. Transcript: Aubrey Marcus Right. So I want to talk, I want to talk more about the, the darker side of things, but I also want to just tap into a little a moment when we were in our dawn ceremony today uh uncle used some sticks That were like this but bigger yeah and he used them to let the land know he was talking he was talking to then he used the word talking i'm talking to the talking to the land to let them know That we're coming. Yeah. And using that sound to the living, breathing entity of the land to say, hey, we're coming in. And he was listening back to make sure the land said, okay, yeah, come on in. It's like he was knocking at the door of the wild nature that he was walking into to say, hey, is it okay if we come in? Tyson Yunkaporta Yeah, not even wild, just the everything. So he was calling out for the sun as well. Yeah, he did that for the sun. And totemically for his people, that's grandfather totem, that sun. Aubrey Marcus And he told me to grab a stone before I went into the ocean. Yeah. And put my intention and announce myself and throw it into the ocean to let the ocean know before I was coming in. Yeah, yeah. And all the creatures. And so I throw the stone into the ocean, say, okay, ocean, I'm coming in and do my best to listen. And ocean seemed cool with it. And I cruise right in and immediately I see this giant manta ray. Yeah. Yeah. He's just like right there looking at me. And then there's this cool shark that's underneath this ledge. And it's like the ocean greeted me in this, in one of them. I mean, it was a 15 minute snorkel in kind of murky waters on a cloudy day. Tyson Yunkaporta And I saw some of the most incredible creatures I've seen. Yeah. Yep. In one of the most depleted marine environments that you'll find anywhere. Like, yeah. Right. But they're doing that work there to restore the crayweed. Right. But it's not just that, just planting out the weed. Like they're making sure people are having a spiritual relationship. So you've got Aboriginal people like teaching, you know, they take CEOs out there like, you know, like periodically and get them to go down and connect with the place. So they're getting people to connect spiritually with the place. Spiritually is a silly word, but it's for them to come under that law. And like, you know, when they announce themselves like that, just that idea of that big paradigm shift of, oh, I'm entering a place, you know, so I got to call out, I got to let the place Know who I am and, you know, what I'm doing there and, you know, then if that place likes me and opens for me and you know because i'm at the edge there you're at the border and that that border That's where you stop and it's not a place of control it's a place of making kin you know border relations is about kin making you know and about facilitating access rather than blocking Access so country and the entities of place they're there to facilitate your access there you know um but you got to kind of get its attention if you barge through country will close for You you're not going to see that manta ray you know you're not going to see that shark yeah um you know even if all the weed the reeds everything's gonna everything will be still close up Aubrey Marcus For you (via) ^rwhi886720684

Learn from Ants

• Observe ants closely to understand interconnectedness and time-place as a unified concept.
• By studying their behavior and interactions, you can learn about the environment. Transcript: Aubrey Marcus And I don't think he got that from somewhere else but what would be something that or something or some things that are just a way of life for you that you could say hey just do these or this One thing you know and your life will be richer the earth will be better. What's, what's something that people can do? Ants. Ants. Yeah. Follow that, like pay close attention to ants. Tyson Yunkaporta And, um, you, you get an idea about, uh, how time and place are one thing. You'll learn that from the ants and watching them and you'll start to you'll be able to you know you do that for a few months oh you'll be able to predict the weather you'll be able to do all Kinds of things you just you follow the ants and you watch what they're doing and you you'll find how they interact with all the other things and then you'll you'll build that relation To everything i always say you always start with the ants. They're the ones, they're the teachers. Yeah. For bringing you back into that relation. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I don't know. (via) ^rwhi886833581