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In the complex of time-concepts evolved by Australian Aboriginies, only one (and the least important) is the linear concept that we use to govern our life and time. Of far greater everyday use was the phenomenological (or phenological) time; the time as given not by clocks, but by the life phenomena of flowers, birds, and weather. An example of real life is that of an old Pitjatjantjara woman who pointed out a small desert flower coming into bloom. She told me that the dingoes, in the ranges of hills far to the north, were now rearing pups, and that it was time for their group to leave fort the hills to collect these pups. Thousands of such relationships are known to tribal peoples. Some such signals may not occur in 100 or 500 years (like the flowering of a bamboo), but when it does occur, special actions and ceremonies are indicated, and linked phenomena are known.
Finally, in tribal society, one is not wise by years, but by degree of revelation. Those who understand and embody advanced knowledge are the most intuitive, and therefore most entitled to special veneration. Such knowledge is almost invariably based on pattern understanding, and is independent of sex or even age, so that one is ‚aged’ by degree of revelation, not time spent in living.
Excerpt from ‘Permaculture, A Designer’s Manual’ by Bill Mollison, Tagari Publications,1988
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