The Nature Calling commitment to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders has a long and proud history. Respect for First Nations peoples is woven throughout the course and knowledge that Geoff has learned from mob on Country and through his studies is always acknowledged with the story and the people behind it. 

Geoff has been a proud ally of First Nations peoples the world over all his life, but it was in the early 2000s, while studying for his Masters in dreams and myth, that Geoff first volunteered at ANTaR, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, in Melbourne (Naarm). He raised over 10K through a series of concert events under the title Come Together, which featured Aboriginal artists such as Vika and Linda alongside popular acts like Augie March and Shane Howard, in a celebratory atmosphere that welcomed large crowds of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. A live CD was produced out of these gigs, which was sold as another, ongoing fundraiser by ANTaR. All funds raised supported the successful campaign for the Yorta Yorta peoples to gain co-management of the Barmah-Millewa National Park.

Through his research for this project, Geoff came across the work of anthropologist John Bradley, who was living and working with and for the Yanyuwa people of North-East Arnhem Land. John was recording the Songlines, or more accurately the Country Lines, of the Yanyuwa, at their request, first in a hand drawn atlas and then in animated versions. Designed to bring generations of Yanyuwa together and pass on priceless knowledge of their Country, the stories also expressed a living, breathing, animate world in which humans related to the more-than-human with respect and reciprocity. This is what myth can really do – breath life into consciousness, so that we awaken to the spirit of place as part of a bigger picture, a whole cosmos of potential filled with relationships between beings, places and even elements. Geoff asked John if he could share his interpretations of the Yanyuwa Country Lines (not the stories themselves, which can only be told by traditional owners) with a wider audience and John asked the Yanyuwa elders, who agreed that he could talk about their stories with respect and honour.

More recently, having moved to the far south coast of NSW, Geoff found himself living amongst the Walbanja peoples of the Yuin Nation, and helped set up the South Coast NSW Aboriginal Elders, where he was the inaugural CEO before handing over operations to the Elders. Geoff has many stories of learning from ‘mob’ over the years and worked closely with Aboriginal families on the coast as part of his role in training people to care for traumatised children. He has also learnt from a Hopi spiritual leader and was befriended by Jerome Bernstein, famous for his work with Navajo or Dine people in the great Southwest of America. But that’s another set of stories (amongst others).

Nowadays, in his work training ecotherapists with Nature Calling, Geoff always pays respect to the Aboriginal peoples who cared for the Country they are working on over countless generations. The team at Nature Calling recognise the need for decolonisation, as a way of educating ourselves about Aboriginal land and the special relationship First Nations peoples have with it. Geoff is also quick to point out that we cannot let an Acknowledgement of Country become a token display but should engage in it to help us connect with our feelings for Country and its traditional owners in a real and respectful way. At Nature Calling events, we use a variety of Acknowledgments, which pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and celebrate Aboriginal connections to Country that are part of a deep history of identification with nature that is unbroken and unceded.

Geoff engages local Elders to offer a Welcome to Country whenever possible, while reminding participants that when this is not possible, we must remember that Elders have more pressing commitments to their own people and cannot always fit in sharing their priceless culture with non-Aboriginal Australians. In fact, he relates that Elders encourage all Australians to reconcile with the earth, to listen deeply to nature as a way of learning to understand a little of how Aboriginal peoples feel about their Country. This requires us to reconnect with the cultures of our own ancestors, as well as to tune into the land and waters and elements in the here and now, as two ways we can reconnect with Country, alongside paying respect to the traditional owners.