MANY people in Bathurst may be reflecting on what it is that makes something sacred, given the importance of this word in the deliberations of federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley concerning the proposed go-kart track on Mount Panorama - Wahluu.
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The problem with sacredness is that it is both intangible and personal.
The same candelabra can be a nice lounge room ornament or a sacred artefact when used in a church.
A porcelain urn may find itself worthless in a garage sale once the people who knew whose ashes it contained have also passed away.
IN NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
In my experience, exploring and documenting Aboriginal sites over the years, I have observed a difference in approach to sacredness.
The western approach is to freeze sacred things in time, put them in controlled spaces like galleries and make them last as long as possible - or, alternatively, to mark a sacred place with a monument like a statue or sign.
I recall sitting in the sand with a Kalkadoon Elder once, talking about how we could put up a fence around a remote art site to stop cattle rubbing against the stone and wearing the art away.
I was expecting him to be supportive, even grateful, so imagine my surprise when he said: "Why?"
"This place is always sacred," he explained to me. "Always has been. Always will be."
The art wasn't what made the place sacred to Kalkadoon people, rather, the art reflected the sacred nature of the place.
The reality was that you just knew the place was special - you could feel it.
The people of O'Connell went to great effort some years ago protecting an avenue of scrappy trees along the side of a road. Why? People remembered that they were planted to commemorate the lives of soldiers who fought in World Wars.
And to take the concept further, if time or development takes down a cenotaph where people have marked Anzac Day for decades, is the gathering place still important?
Or is it the act of gathering, regardless of where it happens and what is there?
Could we have an Anzac service in a supermarket?
These are questions that each of us will answer differently but, ultimately, we have to accept that none of us are 'right'.
But when enough of us agree, then something sacred happens at a community level.
From that point of view, you can imagine how insulting it is for Aboriginal people to be told a site is not sacred and to have to fight to be believed.
Part of reconciliation with Aboriginal Australia involves granting Aboriginal people and stories the same amount of respect that we claim for our own.
Who knows, non-Aboriginal Australians might even learn something that enriches their lives, bringing us all closer together in respect for each other, and our Country.
