Take lessons from First Nations to come out of COVID crisis a better country

As a proud Kaytetye woman caught between many worlds, I have drawn on the traditional ways of my people to cope with the new realities of COVID-19. This First Nations knowledge has lessons for all Australians. It can shape the future in a post-COVID society.

We have the opportunity to emerge on the other side of this crisis in a way that better provides for community wellbeing, intergenerational learning and sustainability. We will all benefit from 80,000 years of ancestral knowledge by Indigenising our future.

Any parent who dealt with homeschooling these past weeks has in fact been re-engaging in traditional ways of learning. Family units have become core learning spaces, where parents and carers have assumed the role of teachers. This is a resurgence of learning systems as old as time, from which most have unfortunately been disconnected. But First Nations communities have long been teaching young people across a knitted frame of educators in a lifelong learning process, where each person within a community has a role to play in educating a young person.

It is a rich and resilient tapestry, not relying on any one resource nor one system but shared across grandparents, aunties, uncles, community members and specific knowledge custodians. Community-centred learning that crosses both education systems at school and home within a family or community context provides a holistic space for the ongoing education of our young people and has been showcased by many educators, families and communities during this time.

Likewise, many Australians are reevaluating their connection to physical space. During COVID-19, where many have been confined to their homes, we have seen significant growth in people’s connection to place and an increasing demonstration of sustainable ways of living through locally sourced food and localised living.

As First Nations custodians, our people have always existed with strong connections to Country and the natural environment. We look after Country so it looks after us, working as land managers with an inextricable link to the ecosystems we exist within.

Each individual is connected to a particular place they are responsible for looking after. Cultivating the land and eating seasonally has always been central to our existence. With COVID-19 creating volatility in food supply chains, people have shifted to locally sourced and seasonally grown produce. The depleted supply of seedlings and herbs at your local nursery is an example of the strong upward trend of home gardening, a commitment to working to cultivate the land and live sustainability.

In the same way we are being forced to redefine our relationship to space, so are we reevaluating our concepts of time. Across Australia, First Nations' ways of existing within non-linear time have become more prominent through COVID-19, with many of people embracing a slower pace of life, deeply engaging with themselves and spending more time "being" rather than "doing".

In First Nations cultures we talk of "creation time" and "ancestors time" – melding the past, present and future in a deep space of reflection. Our languages don’t have words to describe "non-linear" because no one has ever thought of life and time in straight lines. Our old people are constantly telling our young people to slow down and be connected with ourselves, our ancestors and the world around us, which is paramount for taking time to reflect, and observe how the world is shifting.

COVID-19 has allowed me to slow down, and reframe my relationship with time, and to focus on connecting with the past, present and future.

This in turn helps us reprioritise. For many that has meant an outpouring of help and support for one another. We have seen communities organising to improve community wellbeing, especially to support the most vulnerable. First Nations' kinship systems have always worked to ensure every member of a community has reciprocal kinship obligations to one another, and each individual is looked out for no matter what.

Initiatives like "adopt a healthcare worker" are evidence Australians are looking out for one another with a type of support beyond normal reciprocal friendships. These relationships transcend age, just as kinship systems within First Nations communities work to create a net of relationships that will ensure an individual is supported by community members no matter where they go or who they are with.

The past months of social isolation have highlighted ways in which the world has rapidly shifted its systems to protect our communities. It has proved unprecedented change is possible in a short timeframe and under great strain. Looking forward, we have the opportunity to embrace the emergence of knowledge systems shared by First Nations communities since time immemorial. This work can begin now: this week is National Reconciliation Week, a moment for all Australians to reflect on First Nations' contribution to our national fabric. As the world looks to create sustainable economies, improve learning systems, and enhance community wellbeing, we can see that First Nations communities already hold many of the answers we are looking for.

Rona Glynn-McDonald is a Kaytetye woman from central Australia and is the founder and chief executive of Common Ground, an Aboriginal-led organisation capturing and sharing First Nations culture to educate wider Australia.