The Power of Deep Listening
Dadirri – inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.
“In the ceremonies we celebrate the awareness of our lives as sacred”
Respected indigenous elder, Aunty Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann received the Australian Senior of the Year Award 2021. Her acceptance speech was very moving. You can listen to it here. Aunty Miriam Rose has shared her work over the years, with a fierce, quiet presence, humour, honesty and clarity, offering that we can all ‘tap into that deep spring within us’.
Aunty Miriam Rose writes about Dadirri,
“It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.
Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’.
When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness. There is no need of words. A big part of dadirri is listening. Through the years, we have listened to our stories. They are told and sung, over and over, as the seasons go by. Today we still gather around the campfires and together we hear the sacred stories.
As we grow older, we ourselves become the storytellers. We pass on to the young ones all they must know. The stories and songs sink quietly into our minds and we hold them deep inside.
In the ceremonies we celebrate the awareness of our lives as sacred.
The contemplative way of dadirri spreads over our whole life. It renews us and brings us peace. It makes us feel whole again…”
I honour her work and, in our work as celebrants may we be conscious that we are, ‘Celebrating the awareness of our lives as sacred… in ceremony’.
Would you like to come and practice with us and rest in quiet, still awareness? You are most welcome to join us for mindfulness practices every Tuesday evening, freely offered, 7-7.30pm AEDT online. Click here for more information.
