Can a Greek chime in about the Greek word autochthonous? That is αυτόχθων, αυτό- meaning same, while -χθων means ground, soil. So, both together, mean ‘from this land’, where ‘this’ is the land one happens to be or live in.
What the ancestors did not make clear was whether the presence in that land should be physical or if just mental would suffice 😊
This is a wonderful story and poem Dave. I can “almost” imagine what it would be like to be “from” a land, by your telling of it, but can never experience it myself being an immigrant and never really belonging anywhere (and that’s ok too, because it’s given me stories to tell).
Yes - both experiences are profound. I could write a long essay on this, and almost made the mistake of doing so. My Mother, her siblings, and all my Grandparents made the vast choice of immigration to another land, as did so many people from Ireland, including two of my Great Grandparents. It is a choice requiring deep courage and commitment and a mental and emotional leap to an imagined future..... I have enormous respect for all immigrants, including refugees.
As a child and grandchild of immigrants I know their choice gave me a huge gift - this land of Australia which inhabits me as much as I it. I also know that it came with a cost I had not fully understood....
I do understand this, Dave, that we are looking up words and meanings all our lives for that specific, hitherto unknown moment—epiphany, perhaps. Whatever we do, we are searching for meaning and seeking these moments. I’m glad you decided to share this.
Yes - there is something so human about this, isn't there? We are indeed wired to look for meaning, to want to know more, to see things we have only heard about. My mind is full of places I have been, and the memories that go with them, and all the places I have never been - where my mind wanders and wonders.
What a glorious tribute to Ireland on St. Patrick's Day! I just love this, Dave - love the poem, love the pictures, love the afterword, and even the note at the end. It's all just super, and I'm saying that as one who is definitely 'Autochthonous'.
Erin go Bragh. Enjoy the tales, greenery you have found leprechauns gold and gift of beginning to understand 600K aboriginal people with their ancestral tales. Good show ‘mate’.
Thankyou, Richard. So many good men and women of Ireland have come to make their life in Australia (not all of their own free will!). I felt that I knew a lot about Ireland, from wonderful music, sublime poetry and other reading. Maybe that's why I felt I didn't need to actually visit.
As a Poet, I should have been wiser than that. It was the difference between a photo and a mountain.
And that word - auto something or other. I can't even figure out how to say it.
Great poem great story! I've always lived in the USA and I'll never forget my first trip to Europe. I assumed I would feel I was in a strange and foreign land, but somehow I felt a strong connection to the land based on my own ancestry on the continent. It shifted my perspective - added feeling to my knowledge that I am a transplant in the New World.
Hi, other David! Yes... you clearly know the feeling...
The 60,000 years: I used that number because it is very "round" - but it is certainly an underestimate. If you look up "Aboriginal arrival in Australia" you will find a maze of differing estimates and evidence, because new information is constantly being found - from archeology and DNA analysis. The most recent estimates are now more around 65,000 - 70,000 years, but that too could be an underestimate. The earliest sites - any evidence of the initial arrivals - will be under the ocean.
My Aboriginal friends in the desert - if asked - will simply say "We have always been here." They have the creation stories which explain how the land itself was formed. I have sat through ceremony, while those stories were sung, all through the long night, in language so ancient that when the dawn finally came I might myself have travelled in time.
I think, in human terms, when a people have been in a place for thousands of years they do become that place - wherever it is. How many thousands of years starts to become irrelevant, but the incredible depth of human habitation in this place now called Australia, undisturbed until relatively recently by the wider tides of human migration and conflict, is unique.
I didn't know this autochthonous word, Dave, but I am so glad to have it in my pocket now! I know this feeling as well, though only in my bones-- I've yet to walk the land of my ancestors (Wales and Switzerland, respectively), but when I see photos or watch movies, I know these are my homelands. Someday I'd like to do some long walks on the earth where my family is from, and hope to be as smitten as you were in Ireland (I suspect I will be). This poem is gorgeous, Meg's painting is sublime (!!), and I felt transported by your photos. Thank you, thank you for this escape tonight.
Ah my friend! Autochthonous... A wonderful word, is it not?
It delights me that you enjoyed this, (It delights me that you enjoy any of my writing) and I'm about to rush over to Meg and show her what you said about her painting! :)
Our visit to Ireland was revelatory for me, and we hope to return soon.
Wales and Switzerland! What a fabulous combination.... Wales is a land of magic too. Switzerland is delightful... Which reminds me that I have photos and memories of Switzerland - and a wonderful painting by Meg - which might be the source for something to write.
I enjoy ALL of your writing! You inspire me both as a writer and as a person, Dave. And Meg as well, of course. I feel I have two gorgeous friends on the other side of the world, and that somehow is very buoying in these times. Please do share photos of Switzerland! My great grandparents immigrated from there, and my grandmother only spoke Swiss until she was about seven, when a farmhand taught her English at the supper table. I wish she’d taught me the language, but all I know how to say is “It is raining! I must go.” 😂
You do have two friends here - and Meg is certainly gorgeous. (I just bask in her reflection).
I may do a Switzerland post, if I can think what to say. It would be tied up with two time frames - our visit two years ago and 18 year old me, hitch hiking those same roads 48 (!!!!!) years ago....
Do you know what part of Switzerland your Great Grandparents came from? I'm afraid my focus, in my two visits, was the mountains....
Strange and troubling times in your land. I am sure people of good will are in the majority, and that things will get better.
What a beautiful recounting and telling of this story. Your opening lines had me hooked instantly. I have always found that I feel most at home in places that are not my home. The hospitality of some regions are just absolutely top notch and I wonder if I were to stay for longer than long visits if I were to feel the same way about the areas.....but then, I think it has to do with our hearts and how people read us as individuals that makes all the difference. As always, beautiful photos and I love the artwork from Meg. Sending love to both of you. ~Sylvia
I’ve always been called to the green country. Half my people come from Ireland (the other half from Germany), and I’ve wanted to visit SO badly. I am afraid if I get there, I’ll never leave. 🇮🇪 (Also, my favorite thing about this post is finding out Meg has a Substack!!!)
Oh, Kiki, you would love it there then. A wonderful land. Fabulous people...
Meg's Substack - yes! We are having a technical problem. She accidentally created two profiles. We have nixed one, and I have listed M as co-author on all works where her art appears, but none of them are coming up as Posts on her Substack. Anyway - we plan to do more joint projects. She is a most incredibly kind and wise woman. I am biased, of course! But it's not just my opinion :)
Of course she is! She chose a kind and wise partner herself, my friend! (Not that I think we get to choose. Love chooses us.) I’m excited to see more joint posts!!
There is nothing like kinship and finding yourself at home somewhere. Sure, to see wonderful, new, and exotic places is thrilling in itself, but to feel at home, wherever that may be and for whatever reason, is unparalleled. What a lovely ode to a place that unexpectedly stole your heart.<3
Yes - kinship, home.... such vital experiences. I have always felt that home is wherever you make it, and I have moved around quite a bit, but some places are indeed special. Ireland was a delightful surprise!
I kind of feel that way when I travel to the state I originally am from...something calls from somewhere far away in time. Same country, but the states are so diverse in their stories, language and culture! And yes, Ireland is gorgeous...I wrote a poem or two after I travelled to that country.
Wonderful story David. It makes me want to visit Ireland even more. I also could relate to you wife's experience (burnout?). It's part of my wife's and I's landscape too. Thanks for also exploring that whole feeling of not being indigenous to a place (Australia). It's in the background of my writing too.
Yes.... in sickness and in health... I do hope your wife is in a better way now.
Like you, I have complex feelings about our country. A remarkable place in so many ways, but our (non-Aboriginal) society seems in general to be becoming less understanding of this land, rather than more so....
I always think I so love and long for the north coast because of my celtic ancestral nature. Those lush green hills and moist other spaces. Maybe thats why you are living there!
Can a Greek chime in about the Greek word autochthonous? That is αυτόχθων, αυτό- meaning same, while -χθων means ground, soil. So, both together, mean ‘from this land’, where ‘this’ is the land one happens to be or live in.
What the ancestors did not make clear was whether the presence in that land should be physical or if just mental would suffice 😊
Happy Saint Patrick’s day!
Nikos! You are welcome always, my friend!
Deep thanks for the translation, and the very intriguing ambiguity. Mentally, I seem to be from several places....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
This is a wonderful story and poem Dave. I can “almost” imagine what it would be like to be “from” a land, by your telling of it, but can never experience it myself being an immigrant and never really belonging anywhere (and that’s ok too, because it’s given me stories to tell).
Hi Susan
Yes - both experiences are profound. I could write a long essay on this, and almost made the mistake of doing so. My Mother, her siblings, and all my Grandparents made the vast choice of immigration to another land, as did so many people from Ireland, including two of my Great Grandparents. It is a choice requiring deep courage and commitment and a mental and emotional leap to an imagined future..... I have enormous respect for all immigrants, including refugees.
As a child and grandchild of immigrants I know their choice gave me a huge gift - this land of Australia which inhabits me as much as I it. I also know that it came with a cost I had not fully understood....
The great choices in life are always like this...
Best wishes from Australia
Dave
I do understand this, Dave, that we are looking up words and meanings all our lives for that specific, hitherto unknown moment—epiphany, perhaps. Whatever we do, we are searching for meaning and seeking these moments. I’m glad you decided to share this.
Hi friend Mahdi
Yes - there is something so human about this, isn't there? We are indeed wired to look for meaning, to want to know more, to see things we have only heard about. My mind is full of places I have been, and the memories that go with them, and all the places I have never been - where my mind wanders and wonders.
Best Wishes - Dave :)
What a glorious tribute to Ireland on St. Patrick's Day! I just love this, Dave - love the poem, love the pictures, love the afterword, and even the note at the end. It's all just super, and I'm saying that as one who is definitely 'Autochthonous'.
Autochthony, David. Wow, what a beautiful story to go with that achingly beautiful, poem.And I learned a new word! :)❤️
Dear Naz! Thankyou! It's after midnight now. I managed to get this posted just before St Patrick's Day ended here!!!! Off to bed now...
D :)
Have a great night’s sleep. Love to Meg.
Erin go Bragh. Enjoy the tales, greenery you have found leprechauns gold and gift of beginning to understand 600K aboriginal people with their ancestral tales. Good show ‘mate’.
Thankyou, Richard. So many good men and women of Ireland have come to make their life in Australia (not all of their own free will!). I felt that I knew a lot about Ireland, from wonderful music, sublime poetry and other reading. Maybe that's why I felt I didn't need to actually visit.
As a Poet, I should have been wiser than that. It was the difference between a photo and a mountain.
Best Wishes - Dave :)
60,0000? That's a fascinating number!
And that word - auto something or other. I can't even figure out how to say it.
Great poem great story! I've always lived in the USA and I'll never forget my first trip to Europe. I assumed I would feel I was in a strange and foreign land, but somehow I felt a strong connection to the land based on my own ancestry on the continent. It shifted my perspective - added feeling to my knowledge that I am a transplant in the New World.
Hi, other David! Yes... you clearly know the feeling...
The 60,000 years: I used that number because it is very "round" - but it is certainly an underestimate. If you look up "Aboriginal arrival in Australia" you will find a maze of differing estimates and evidence, because new information is constantly being found - from archeology and DNA analysis. The most recent estimates are now more around 65,000 - 70,000 years, but that too could be an underestimate. The earliest sites - any evidence of the initial arrivals - will be under the ocean.
My Aboriginal friends in the desert - if asked - will simply say "We have always been here." They have the creation stories which explain how the land itself was formed. I have sat through ceremony, while those stories were sung, all through the long night, in language so ancient that when the dawn finally came I might myself have travelled in time.
I think, in human terms, when a people have been in a place for thousands of years they do become that place - wherever it is. How many thousands of years starts to become irrelevant, but the incredible depth of human habitation in this place now called Australia, undisturbed until relatively recently by the wider tides of human migration and conflict, is unique.
Thanks, David , fascinating and incredible and a punctuation point on how boring my existence is
I didn't know this autochthonous word, Dave, but I am so glad to have it in my pocket now! I know this feeling as well, though only in my bones-- I've yet to walk the land of my ancestors (Wales and Switzerland, respectively), but when I see photos or watch movies, I know these are my homelands. Someday I'd like to do some long walks on the earth where my family is from, and hope to be as smitten as you were in Ireland (I suspect I will be). This poem is gorgeous, Meg's painting is sublime (!!), and I felt transported by your photos. Thank you, thank you for this escape tonight.
Ah my friend! Autochthonous... A wonderful word, is it not?
It delights me that you enjoyed this, (It delights me that you enjoy any of my writing) and I'm about to rush over to Meg and show her what you said about her painting! :)
Our visit to Ireland was revelatory for me, and we hope to return soon.
Wales and Switzerland! What a fabulous combination.... Wales is a land of magic too. Switzerland is delightful... Which reminds me that I have photos and memories of Switzerland - and a wonderful painting by Meg - which might be the source for something to write.
Mmmmm....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
I enjoy ALL of your writing! You inspire me both as a writer and as a person, Dave. And Meg as well, of course. I feel I have two gorgeous friends on the other side of the world, and that somehow is very buoying in these times. Please do share photos of Switzerland! My great grandparents immigrated from there, and my grandmother only spoke Swiss until she was about seven, when a farmhand taught her English at the supper table. I wish she’d taught me the language, but all I know how to say is “It is raining! I must go.” 😂
:)
You do have two friends here - and Meg is certainly gorgeous. (I just bask in her reflection).
I may do a Switzerland post, if I can think what to say. It would be tied up with two time frames - our visit two years ago and 18 year old me, hitch hiking those same roads 48 (!!!!!) years ago....
Do you know what part of Switzerland your Great Grandparents came from? I'm afraid my focus, in my two visits, was the mountains....
Strange and troubling times in your land. I am sure people of good will are in the majority, and that things will get better.
Best wishes always
D :)
Gone back to re-read this after your very kind engagement with my piece called 'Longing'. Resonates hugely. Thanks, Dave.
What a beautiful recounting and telling of this story. Your opening lines had me hooked instantly. I have always found that I feel most at home in places that are not my home. The hospitality of some regions are just absolutely top notch and I wonder if I were to stay for longer than long visits if I were to feel the same way about the areas.....but then, I think it has to do with our hearts and how people read us as individuals that makes all the difference. As always, beautiful photos and I love the artwork from Meg. Sending love to both of you. ~Sylvia
Thankyou Syl!!
Ireland is an easy place to write about......
D :)
I’ve always been called to the green country. Half my people come from Ireland (the other half from Germany), and I’ve wanted to visit SO badly. I am afraid if I get there, I’ll never leave. 🇮🇪 (Also, my favorite thing about this post is finding out Meg has a Substack!!!)
Oh, Kiki, you would love it there then. A wonderful land. Fabulous people...
Meg's Substack - yes! We are having a technical problem. She accidentally created two profiles. We have nixed one, and I have listed M as co-author on all works where her art appears, but none of them are coming up as Posts on her Substack. Anyway - we plan to do more joint projects. She is a most incredibly kind and wise woman. I am biased, of course! But it's not just my opinion :)
Best wishes to you, friend Kiki!
Dave
Of course she is! She chose a kind and wise partner herself, my friend! (Not that I think we get to choose. Love chooses us.) I’m excited to see more joint posts!!
There is nothing like kinship and finding yourself at home somewhere. Sure, to see wonderful, new, and exotic places is thrilling in itself, but to feel at home, wherever that may be and for whatever reason, is unparalleled. What a lovely ode to a place that unexpectedly stole your heart.<3
Hi Krissy! Good morning from Australia...
Yes - kinship, home.... such vital experiences. I have always felt that home is wherever you make it, and I have moved around quite a bit, but some places are indeed special. Ireland was a delightful surprise!
Best Wishes - Dave :)
I kind of feel that way when I travel to the state I originally am from...something calls from somewhere far away in time. Same country, but the states are so diverse in their stories, language and culture! And yes, Ireland is gorgeous...I wrote a poem or two after I travelled to that country.
Wonderful story David. It makes me want to visit Ireland even more. I also could relate to you wife's experience (burnout?). It's part of my wife's and I's landscape too. Thanks for also exploring that whole feeling of not being indigenous to a place (Australia). It's in the background of my writing too.
Hi Damian
Yes.... in sickness and in health... I do hope your wife is in a better way now.
Like you, I have complex feelings about our country. A remarkable place in so many ways, but our (non-Aboriginal) society seems in general to be becoming less understanding of this land, rather than more so....
I always think I so love and long for the north coast because of my celtic ancestral nature. Those lush green hills and moist other spaces. Maybe thats why you are living there!
Could be!!
We also hate crowds....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
There is that!
I know exactly what you speak of here. 💚