Risk & Safety
In dialogue we might see that the biggest problem with contemporary approaches to risk is the illusion of safety as a human right that can be controlled as a variable in advance. It cannot. In fact, there is no such thing as safety in Aboriginal worldviews. We have no word for it in our languages. Safety provided by an invisible hierarchy is complete anathema to our way of being. There is no agency in safety, which places a person in a passive role, at the mercy of authorities who may or may not intervene when needed. So we have no word for safety or risk.
However, we have plenty of words for protection.
Protection has two protocols. The first is to look out for yourself. The second is to look out for the people around you. This is such a wonderful way to live, knowing that you have the power to defend yourself and the ones you love, while also being intensely aware that at any given moment there are dozens of people who are watching your back as you watch theirs. This is the interdependence that our kinship pairs and networks of pairs offer.