Decolonising Paganism?

My unusual situation, theologically and culturally speaking

Photo by me (An arch of sky - backlit by sun in its upper half - is framed above and below by Blue Gum leaves and branches)

I’m in an unusual situation, theologically and culturally speaking.

As a member of the (Australian First Peoples) Stolen Generations, specifically the Lost Generations (which means I was adopted before I had any memory of culture), who is being guided through reconnecting with culture by my younger siblings who weren’t adopted or stolen, I am aware of Biyaame, the Wiradjuri “Great Spirit”, some of the Bundjalung stories such as three brothers who came from the sea, and that the white colonisers tried to subvert Biyaame into their neochristian (I dispute that they were Christian) stories for colonising purposes - which was more successful in the colonisers minds than amongst us.

But a lot of our people wound up Christian/neochristian - often by force, in the first generation, at least.

My adoptive parents were nominally (father) and genuinely (mother) Anglican. So was I, therefore ... until I hit teenage years and somehow found, in a small central Queensland town, Buddhism. That was my first exit key, and I found the personal analysis, meditation, and reflection very useful at breaking social conditioning generally, and giving me the strength to be myself.

However, there was almost nothing of Nature in it - the aim was (largely) to evolve sufficiently to be able to escape this world, and I cared too much about this world for that to sit right with me, so I eventually found my way to Paganism - and specifically the Nature-centric forms of Paganism (there’s more about that on my main blog, at https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/p/about-paganism-witchcraft.html).

Theologically, I was on the way to being decolonised - and the old anthropological films, where they showed medical and psychic defence practices, were very close to what I was doing as a Pagan.

But I still had to decolonise myself from the social conditioning of my upbringing - especially as I - and my siblings - am white passing. My human rights activism, particularly as a member of a few other minority groups, helped with that, but finding my birth family, and then finding that my birth father - who had died some years before I found them - was a Wiradjuri and Bundjalung (Widjabul-Wiabol) man, answered a lot of questions, and felt like coming home.

Of course, having happened later in my life, I’m like a 60 plus years old teenager, and have massive gaps in my knowledge (especially about caring for country - which knowledge is in our songlines). Sadly, my health problems, including trauma from years of abuse, and family responsibilities here, mean I may miss out on that knowledge as I can’t travel back to country, and thus my decolonisation is not complete ... but I’m fairly content with where it is at, and my Paganism is helping me cope with some of those gaps.

Paganism generally, however, is not free of things like New Age taint (especially the risk of cultural appropriation), and I find online channels such as the UK-based Witchcraft Activism and Kelly-Ann Maddox help with recognising and overcoming that set of issues.

I have also done some of adaptation of Paganism seasonal rituals to suit the local seasons, rather than the Scottish seasons most forms of Paganism use.

My birth siblings have taught me some of our people’s practices, but I am not in a position to write about those (I have neither the authority nor the depth of knowledge), and will leave this post at that for now.

Until I can overcome my executive dysfunction enough to get myself set up on Stripe here, if you wish to encourage or support me you can do so at PayPal or Ko-Fi – and such would be appreciated.