Culture

When I turned 12 years of age I did not recognise what my family had done to change the way I engaged my peers and others around me.

According to our culture, when the young boys, whom we call ‘Eureewin‘ (someone who has not been through or been rejected from going through ceremony) has reached this age he is not permitted to stay in the communal group of children and act as a child anymore.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can now understand what I thought was an act of torture as my participation with my peers was restricted and those with whom I sought to associate was ruled by the elders of my family, including the extended family, all of whom had responsibility to control my movement and social associations.

As I grew up, I secretly commenced my ceremonial education over a period of nine years. This included having to come home from the city and my learning/working to spend time with the Old Ones. The length of my learning enabled me to do all that I became involved in – including Politics and Sport.

I learnt from men and women who were born between 1897 to 1928. It is important to understand that these people did not learn from their mothers and fathers. Our culture requires our grandparents to be our teachers. So my teachers and mentors learnt from their grandparents, who lived in their communities with their parents and grandparents who had no knowledge at all of the world of white people. At this time, they did not even know that white people had landed on the shores of this country.

About Michael Eckford (aka Michael Anderson)
Culture
Biography – growing up
My wife Jutta
Farmlife
Committee memberships