Jo Faith, Newtown
I wish to thank The Echo for printing the article by Bob Morgan, First Nations academic. This article articulated the plight of Indigenous peoples; linking also the appalling rise of Deaths in Custody in Australia, now climbing to 479 with seven more deaths reported over the last two months.
Bob Morgan writes of ‘spiritual fatigue’, also noting that we are all ‘spirit’. We must remind ourselves of the repressive technologies that have aided the colonisation of Australia.
‘Spiritual fatigue’ in very broad terms is a debilitating consequence of having to struggle for Human Rights and Freedom, or being forced to defend them. Dealing with the destruction of Aboriginal languages, the contamination of Aboriginal lands, cultural values and traditions, the forced removal of children, the wilful desecration of Ancestral lands, the disproportionate incarceration rates, and the destruction of age-old lore, are all determinants giving rise to ‘spiritual fatigue’.
Indigenous people are holistic ecologists, incorporating also-meaning systems from the cosmology of the skies and stars. Settlers in colonial Australia were dominated by the Anthropocene ideology. Today this is aided by the vacuous ‘Neoliberal Market’, a socially constructed theory, and a cruel socioeconomic force that is stripped of empathy, wellbeing for all and sociological understanding of its deep theoretical and operative flaws.
Man is not the centre of the universe. Devouring the planet for profit, creating the conditions for dire climate change, greater social/ecological alienation, species dispossession, homelessness – on every level we are daily witnessing this destructive attitude. Even ‘Brand Byron’ has mortal sins on its soul, like a total ignoramous it blindly knelt before Profit, resulting in alienation and suffering for its disintegrating humanity/community.
We can create remedy by harnessing our own power. A mere suggestion is creating Empathy Zones. This can be done by claiming spaces, parks, beachfronts, get togethers in homes etc. And by demanding an Empathy Zone for First Nations people to practise lore and keep people out of prisons. There is great heart in Byron. Feed it with Empathy. We must all hold onto hope and be activists. We are Spirit.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
