Postface

by Greg Campbell, author of Total Reset (2022) 

in the book

Declaration of Peace for Indigenous Australians and Nature:

A Legal Pluralist Approach to First Laws and Earth Laws.

Anne Poelina, Donna Bagnall, Mary Graham, Ross Timmulbar Williams, Tyson Yunkaporta, Chels Marshall, Shola Anthony Diop, Nadeem Samnakay, Michelle Maloney and Michael Davis. 2024. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

(pp.131-34)

This Declaration of Peace for Indigenous Peoples and Nature is a call for humanity to cease warring against them, not only because of the injustice and destruction wrought, but also because our wellbeing is inextricably linked with that of the natural world and the application of the knowledge possessed by Indigenous peoples about our Whole Earth system and sapiens’ role in its wellbeing and stability.

The First Peoples of Australia have long recognised that the self-regulating, balanced functioning of our planet and its diverse forms and phenomena are a consequence of all elements of the system abiding by their respective operating principles. It is part of the architecture of the First Law. As the First Peoples know, every species has its Law and originally, every society.

The concept of ‘Earth Law’ can be traced (though not explicitly articulated as such) in part through the writings of individuals such as legal scholar Christopher Stone, whose 1972 book Should Trees Have Standing? has been an important influence, and Thomas Berry, whose The Great Work (1999) is another seminal text. The concept has resonated far and wide, with New Zealand becoming the first nation to legislate recognition of an entire ecosystem (the Whanganui River, including its non-material aspect) as a legal person with no fewer rights than any other person.

Advocates of Earth Law acknowledge the Universe as the primary lawgiver, accept that there is a relational-based existence between people and the broader Earth Community, and affirm all have rights to exist and contribute to our planet’s wellbeing. It is soundly based, and with much potential but is a mere fifty years old.

First Law is ancient and timeless. It has been operating from Day One, providing ever-reliable guidance for an ecologically healthy planet devoid of wars of conquest and control and with people leading empowered dignified lives of relative abundance and inner riches. It is First Law that protects our planet, not human laws unless they align with it. As Anne Poelina says, “the Law is in the land, not in man”.

One day while sitting in a bush camp chatting about Country with Lulu, an elderly Nykina man and widely respected Law-Keeper of High Degree (during the first decade of our work on the recently published book, Total Reset ), he said, “Law always been here, always will. He not goin’, anywhere. He here right now. We sittin’ on ‘im. Yair, Law is in Country, Country is in Law”.

Directly experiencing that fact means connecting with Country, full stop. Knowing First Law means knowing how to walk in the field of a more subtle awareness— observing, listening, seeing and feeling from the still depths of simply being. When the button of intuitive awareness is permanently on and we are connected, our understanding is transformed and our life. It is not without reason the authors refer to Goethe’s view that the way to understand things is “through prolonged emphatic looking and seeing grounded in direct experience”.

I have never met another human being who does not want an equitably managed, peaceful, abundant and enduring world. But that is only possible if our politico-socioeconomic structures and systems operate in alignment with First Law. Today, they do not and the consequences are plain to see: climate and ecological crises, rampant species extinction, endless geo-political conflicts, expanding inequalities, rising rates of mental illness and so on.

First Law, emanating from the non-material dimension of reality (generally known by the First Peoples as the Dreaming), illumines the place and purpose of every species, each with its unique blueprint for living as an interconnected part of the whole. It encodes an account of the true nature of reality and of the way of things as well as the principles for each species to survive and flourish in a continuing dance of life.

The automatic consequence of people living in alignment with the First Law is a balanced system, homeostasis. It is the permanent cure for the world’s illnesses and why people’s awareness of the First Law and associated rights and obligations is crucial to humanity’s future. It is what enables our species to diligently perform its function. As Lulu emphasised whenever I asked him about humanity’s role on our planet, “The job of humans is to keep the balance of all life”. It is why our species is endowed with its distinctive capabilities and why it is about ‘we’ not ‘me’ as this paper’s authors assert.

The authors’ advocacy for the elevation of First Law as a crucial platform for the continuance of our species is prescient. As First Law has always existed it does not need to be discovered or created, only to be recognised and re-positioned as the fulcrum of society.

The easiest starting point for reactivating First Law is to listen to the voices of those who have carried it intact from Day One, the First Peoples of Australia. How else could their societies have endured for 65,000 + years? It is why people involved in policy development and decision-making today need to pay close attention to the themes of this substantive paper.

As its title suggests, one pathway for Australia’s return to First Law is the implementation of existing jurisprudential recognition of both ancient and modern law— legal pluralism. By progressively weaving together First Law and human-made law, the two can be “inextricably intertwined into one legal, equitable, ethical, ecological and cultural tapestry of which Australia can be proud” (Bagnall, above). In effect, “the embryonic form of an intact, collective spiritual identity for all Australians, which will inform and support our daily, safe lives, our legal and political systems, aspirations and creative genius” (Graham, above).

It is a powerful idea, typifying the Indigenous ethos of respect and cooperative endeavour. If, as Donna Bagnall suggests, the law of equity, which has long existed to correct unjust outcomes under the common law, is re-invigorated it could act as a practical bridging mechanism. Her essay, Legal Pluralism—An analysis of the current law and future possibilities in this book, is compelling reading, a springboard for anyone in the legal profession to make their mark on the progressive evolution of the law of the land.

Another strategy the authors advance is the integration of the two laws, “privileging Indigenous First Laws separate, but complementary to Western law” (above). Some may feel that is a little ambitious but the state of the world is now so patently degraded and increasingly unstable that a refusal to countenance a wide range of sensible politico-socioeconomic strategies for returning things to balance constitutes complicity in our world’s demise.

More important than human and financial capital firing up technological innovation is the need for it to ignite politico-socioeconomic innovation. As the land of a living First Law, Australia is in the box seat to lead the world. There is no objective reason why any one or more of its 89 bioregions and 419 sub-regions should not see the privileging of First Law where it is still held by the First Peoples. Logically, that means a regional governance framework informed by First Law which holds autonomous, place-based, eco-centric and kin-centric egalitarian human societies as central to the web of life. They are commonly known as holistic societies.

The societal structure for Australia was never centralised governance with a few states and territories; it was regional, place-based self-governance for the benefit of its human and non-human inhabitants and their ecosystem or bio-region. The widely noted superb condition of the continent of Australia in 1788 is proof it was astutely managed by its web of hundreds of interconnected holistic societies.

As governance was decentralised, the linking mechanisms were sophisticated. There was the Law-anchored ethos of mutual respect, of caring and sharing and giving rather than taking with long-standing systems and protocols to facilitate the dynamics of cooperative interdependency and collaboration. One example is the immensely powerful, highly significant songline system that connects the entire continent. It is always resonating. Lulu would have wholeheartedly agreed with Mary Graham’s statement, “The concept and practice of Regenerative Songlines is one of the best ways of strengthening and maintaining the Law …” (above).

The re-emergence of the Indigenous relationalities-based holistic model as a dominant feature of society is crucial to the future of life on this planet. Tyson Yunkaporta bluntly warns that if First Law does not prevail, a cataclysm awaits us. But he also 134 Postface books the good news that First Law is accessible to everybody and “has the capacity to engage all people in the vital work of creating regenerative systems in every area of human endeavour” (above).

The stories, insights and recommendations presented by the authors flow not from ideological perspectives or narrow self-interest but from a deep wellspring of traditional wisdom and the classically high ethical Indigenous standard of respect for the sanctity and wellbeing of all life. These are writings worthy of close study and contemplation for they contain the power to inspire the kinds of initiatives so desperately needed.

Humanity can no longer afford to indulge in more decades of profligacy and destruction. As Anne Poelina writes, “we are in a moment in time to right-size the planet and rebalance energy systems through a pluriverse of brave human beings who are coming together to dream a new way of living and being” (above).

There is a lot of work to do together, the whole human family (powerbrokers and billionaires included). It might be very challenging but it is hard to imagine any endeavour more worthy than working for the present and future wellbeing of all life.