A Ngarrindjeri elder, Doreen Kartinyeri, said that Mr Mclachlan had endangered her life and spiritual well-being under aboriginal law by allowing a male member of his staff to open and photograph the documents that contained sacred women's secrets.
The Ngarrindjeri women had finally agreed to reveal their ancient stories after realising it was the only way to block the building of a controversial bridge development which was being planned on a site that was particularly sacred to women.
The bridge was not built and so a sacred site has been preserved. It is interesting to observe the power that the the aboriginal elders appear to have over the Australian government in this instance. A cynic would observe that this is just a case of political expediency - a shaky government protecting itself rather than an example of a government understanding or truly observing sacred law.
In so many places sacred sites have fallen under the bulldozers wheels. In the UK, the Department of Transport is blindly laying motorways through sacred woodlands, deaf to the protests of people who cannot bear to see the land ripped apart in this way. The 'Dongas'- the heroic tribe of young people, and many other more middle class voters protested passionately but unsuccessfully, to save 'Twyford Down' near Winchester in Hampshire - a site of outstanding natural beauty covering an ancient burial ground in which archaeologists had discovered the skeletons of seven-foot tall warriors.
Currently there are many sites in Britain that are facing possible destruction, 'Carmel Woods' in Wales is one place amongst many, that are the subjects of international conservation campaigns. The campaigners know that the woods are of tremendous spiritual significance, but realise that this argument will mean absolutely nothing to the politicians or bureaucrats. The UK government will not acknowledge the ancient religion of the land in its laws. At 'Stonehenge' the druids and other 'recognised' worshippers are allowed to touch the stones if they have written permission. Even this has only been possible because the stones have such a well charted history as a place of worship that the authorities relented to pressure from the civil rights lobby.
In Britain the Christian church has often chosen pagan sacred sites as places to erect a church. Christian law has very little to say about the need to tolerate other religious practices. In the US the federal government has frequently acted in the interest of the church or the multi-nationals and turned a blind eye to Native American demands to protect their land. The Lakota are currently fighting a battle to protect 'The Black Mountains' - a site that is the heart of their universe. An unlikely alliance of the Catholic Church and a US university are trying to build an astronomical observatory on the top of the mountain. 'The San Francisco Peaks', sacred to the Hopi are the subject of plans for a ski resort. Sadly the US government seems less willing to follow the Australian example and respect the sacred laws of its first nation.
In a world where civil law seems a far more potent force than sacred law it is important to consider the consequences for our collective karma, of trampling across these ancient ways, of destroying sacred land and dishonouring sacred law. As indigenous people across the world struggle to protect their sacred worlds, they keep trying to warn those of us who inhabit the modern world of computers and high technology that they are not speaking in metaphors. If the rainforests are all destroyed it will not just affect the Yanomani it will touch all of us, we may not have enough oxygen to breathe. The Kogi of Columbia have prayed for hundreds of years and continue to pray that the 'heart of the world' continues to beat and that the we in the West - 'little brother', can continue to live. When they say that it is through their prayers that the sun rises every day - many of us in the West smile, as though we are being told a charming story, unable to equate this idea with the scientific knowledge we use to understand the world.
Honouring the sacred lands and laws of indigenous people is perhaps a good starting point. If we can bring back a sense of the sacred into our everyday lives and learn true tolerance and respect for the sacred laws of all the citizens of this planet, we would witness a tremendous transformation. If we adopted the Native American Law that 'Nothing shall be done to harm the child ' we would experience a revolution.
Copyright © 1996 The International Communique Ltd