Morning Sun :: Yayoi Kusama
* * * * * “The sand-talk symbol shows a basic model of the Turnaround event of creation, the enormous revolving force that produced the separation of earth and sky worlds. “Turnaround” is an Aboriginal English word that was used to describe creation events and times before the term “Dreamtime” was invented by settlers. Creation is not an event in the distant past, but something that is continually unfolding and needs custodians to keep co-creating it by linking the two worlds together via metaphors in cultural practice. Story Places or sacred sites are places of overlap between the two worlds, which is why people need protection when entering these places—calling out for the old people and putting armpit sweat or smoke or water on those entering. Ceremony creates a similarly powerful overlap between the worlds. Ceremonies and interactions with sites on Country in this way keep creation in motion, causing increases in natural and social systems that are necessary for good health.
A smaller but similar Turnaround event happens at the neurological level when an individual learns something new. There is a spark of creation like lightning when true learning takes place, with a genetic reward of chemical pleasure released in the brain. This is the moment that teachers love – described by educators universally as “the light coming on in their eyes.” You can see the same light when you gut a fish—for a few minutes there is a shine like rainbows in its intestines, but as the life and spirit leave those organs, the light dies. This living spirit of creation, sparked by opposite fields colliding and separating, is what brings fire and light into the universe. This is the sacred nature of knowledge. A knowledge-keeper must share knowledge because she or he is a custodian of miniature creation events that must continually take place in the minds of people coming into knowledge.
The chemical burst of pleasure we feel when genuine knowledge transmission takes place occurs from the creation of new neural pathways. These are connections between two points that were previously unconnected. Jokes are one of the most pure examples of this neural creation event; most humor is based on two ideas coming together in a new way: puns, rhymes, double meanings, unusual circumstances, accidents, exposed delusions, and contextually inappropriate content are examples of this. The chemical rush we get from sudden neural connections in jokes is so intense and pleasurable that we laugh out loud. This kind of humor and joy in learning is a huge part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. If people are laughing, they are learning. True learning is a joy because it is an act of creation.”
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
by Tyson Yunkaporta
