Walkabout

What is a walkabout? Is it something that we can adopt into our modern day life? 

Going on a walkabout doesn’t mean you are lost. A traditional practice in Aboriginal culture, it’s as much an inner journey of transformation as a physical exploration. 

In today’s episode we explain how each and every one of us can embrace our very own walkabout, how going on this journey can take us deeper into understanding ourselves, our purpose and our connection to the whole. 

Transcript

Episode 2 – Walkabout

Welcome to the Mindy Movement, the thought-provoking podcast by Soulful Soundwaves. Conversations inspired by real life events, lessons and learnings, gifted to us while traveling across Australia in a tiny home on wheels. Welcome aboard.

We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners, custodians and ancestors of the land and country we walk on, and their connection to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respect to the elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all indigenous people across the world.

Maeve:

Oh, we have a good topic for today.

Lorenzo:

G’day G’day!

Maeve:

We are gonna talk about walkabout, something that is very dear to our hearts. If you have followed along with our journey, we have been on an extended walkabout for close to four years. So Lorenzo, let’s jump right in. What is a walkabout?

Lorenzo:

A walkabout is a journey, which is both internal and external. In other words, it is a practical journey and an inner journey. And it needs to have two characteristics. One is, which is absolutely essential, is timeless. So it doesn't have an end date. And the second one is…it doesn't have a destination because this journey is not about where we go or where we get to, it is about what we can find inside ourselves. And what we can find is more often than not, not expected. So we don't know how far we are going to go when we go on a walkabout. That's why a walkabout can last for two days, two months or two years, nobody knows.

Maeve:

Totally. And it's hugely significant within the Aboriginal culture of Australia, and actually extending out to all indigenous cultures across the world. A walkabout was brought to life on the beautiful screen by old man actor who has recently passed from his physical body, a Yolngu man and elder of just pure grace, bringing exposure as to what walkabout is and that movie. So if you have not watched walkabout the movie, please do so. And this is exactly the concept we're talking about today, is… where has it gone? Why have we lost the concept of walkabout? It is still very much embraced in Indigenous culture of Australia. It is a very important passage from boyhood to manhood.

Lorenzo:

It is a rite of passage. It starts as a rite of passage, but then you go on a walkabout every time you are feeling lost. Every time you're feeling broken. Every time you are feeling…you are stuck, at the end of a cycle that's repeating itself. Every time you have a problem and you don't know what to do, you go on and walkabout. And that can happen one time, 10 times, a hundred times in a lifetime.

Maeve:

Of course. So let's go a little bit deeper into the Western side of society in terms of why have we lost the concept of walkabout? The disconnection (from the idea) that nature holds the answers for us or reflects back to us, what we see or what we are feeling. Because Indigenous cultures…that's something that they have done for thousands and thousands of years, nature and country is their teacher.

Lorenzo:

Potentially is everybody's teacher.

Maeve:

Absolutely. And this is something that we need to embrace again, is…start to build that connection again with ourselves, but also with nature. To go “You know what? I have the courage to be able to go and be by myself in nature.” I'm comfortable…learning to be comfortable with silence, with space that only you can find when you're on a walkabout, when it's just you and nature.

Lorenzo:

I think this is…that is mainly one of the big problems of Western people. We do everything following a timeframe. When we take time off it’s for a weekend, it’s for a few weeks on holiday. But every time we leave, we know when we are going to come back.

Maeve:

Totally. We have a schedule.

Lorenzo:

We have a schedule. And also it's part of our culture because we have a linear sense of time and space. We know where we are going to go. We know what is our arrival point. And more often than not, these two things get combined. So we have a timeframe and we have a destination and…sounds a little bit like a refrain, but the journey is more important than the destination. It is true. In our culture the destination comes always first.

Maeve:

Yeah. And I think that's part of the problem is…we want to know what the outcome is. We've been so conditioned by what the outcome is and what something is promised. Then actually the journey to discover that for ourselves, allowing the outcome to be a mystery, because that outcome can be even more beautiful than what we have an expectation of. And as you journey through, you know, we can say it's self development or whatever these buzzwords are that we put to this kind of journey. But it's ultimately finding our wholesome side of ourself. Our being, our wholesome being. And when we take these steps towards that place, we have to sit in our discomfort and we don't know how long it's going to take to get through that hurdle, to get through that lesson. You know, we turn to therapists… we westerners turn to therapists to help us with problems. If we feel stuck, if we feel depressed, if we feel dark or empty.

Lorenzo:

That is the thing. We don't know how to access the place, where we can find a solution to our problems. That's why we are so stuck. And we are so desperate that our mental health is constantly compromised. It's about mental health. We know how to put a patch on our situation from a physical point of view, but we don't know how to do it from a mental point of view and mental health doesn't mean you’re crazy. Even our brain needs to be refreshed and it needs to be nurtured.

Maeve:

Absolutely. And it needs a break. I think ultimately as well, what a walkabout provides is a break from the stimulus. It's very common now to find noise as a filler. Whether that's music, whether that's the background of the radio or the TV on when you're cooking dinner. There's not enough silence, there's not enough break. And our brains, as amazing machines that they are, they're constantly listening, constantly looking, constantly consuming, even if it's something in the background.

And this is something that we don't really think about, is…giving our mind and our body space to be and space to just work at its natural flow without having to consume anything. And often when we are in routine, regular, ongoing routine, day in and day out, similar routine, whether it's we've got children in school, we're working nine to five. The week schedule rolls week to week. And often we then have to insert time, “Oh, we need to go on holiday or we need a break. And that might be one weekend. Every three months. It might be the school holidays, but it's our anchor. We look towards that. However, the reality is we don't need to wish time away in order to find what we're seeking. We're simply seeking space. We're simply seeking the escape from the norm, whatever our norm is. If we are stuck in the future, projecting ourselves into the future as “What's coming up?”, cause we desire that, we desire that today. How can we find a little bit of that in our everyday life?

Lorenzo:

I think the most important part is…and I know that this word is going to bring up memories, but the most important part of a walkabout is isolation. So you don't have contact with other human beings. The quality of our isolation makes a lot of difference because we know exactly what isolation means. But when we head to isolate from others, we filled our time and space with stuff.

Maeve:

Absolutely.

Lorenzo:

We were constantly listening to something. We were constantly looking for something on the web, watching TV, doing something, getting busy. This is the thing. Getting busy.

Maeve:

Yeah. And maybe even change the word “isolation” to “being alone”. Alone in yourself, but with yourself. And that might seem scary. And it has done, and it continues to do. If we ever need to learn lessons, it feels scary because we don't know what's going to come up or what we're going to feel. But we're meant to feel, we're not meant to be numb. We're not meant to run away from our emotions. We're meant to feel them, it's energy in motion. Four years ago, when we were living in the city of Sydney in a beautiful house, we had everything, but just didn't feel fulfilled. Didn't feel the depth in which we were seeking. Felt a little bit empty, a little bit bombarded. And for us it was a change, to try and escape that cycle.

Lorenzo:

So one night while we were probably watching TV, but we were on the couch.

Maeve:

How ironic.

Lorenzo:

Maeve asked me a question. It was like a little bit like a bomb in the middle of the sea. You know, it was like, and she asked me, “what do you think if we are going to buy a secondhand caravan and we are going to go live in it?” And I thought about it for a few seconds. And then I said “Why not?” The only limits that we pose to ourselves are because we create these limits and yes, you can be bound physically from your job, your life, whatever you got to do, but there is a way to mold your life in the way you want. There's always a way to make it happen.

Maeve:

Totally. And we're not saying that you necessarily need to buy caravan and go off like hippies around Australia. We now know, four years on, we could have found that living in Sydney. Which would've eventually led us on a different path to find whatever it is we were seeking. However, being in the environment of nature, being in the environment of a walkabout, we were physically doing it then because that's where we were residing. Those years ago, we were in a material world. We were in a physical world. We hadn't quite crafted the spiritual piece, but that's what the walkabout brought us. It literally guided us into moments which opened our spirituality, opened that bridge between physical and spiritual. And we have to thank that walkabout for that.

Lorenzo:

Absolutely. And the funny thing is that more often than not, when we met people, sooner or later the conversation was heading to the point where they were asking “So, where do you live guys?” And I was pointing the caravan saying “Well, do you see that 15 foot tin? That’s where we live”. And they were like “Oh, really?”

Maeve:

Often, usually followed by “But...you're the largest, tallest humans and the biggest dog. And you have the smallest home!” And that's also been part of that journey. But the exciting thing that we can all take from when we go on a walkabout is…when we left Sydney, and just reflecting back on our journey four years ago, we had a plan, a vague one, but we had a plan. We kind of knew where we were going to be, you know, six weeks from now, three months from now. And as we really sunk into that walkabout, the less we needed the plan. The plan just fell to the side and it wasn't because we weren't achieving it. We were achieving more, but we were being in the moment and we were going with whatever the walkabout was taking us on, whatever turns, whatever...you know?!

Lorenzo:

Yeah. Basically the plan started becoming more like a direction. We knew that we were heading north, for example. Didn't know how, where, when, we just put ourselves on the road and (when)we were at a certain point, we were stopping. Literally.

Maeve:

Absolutely. And that's also a very frequent question we get asked. When we left Queensland last year to come into the Territory, which I would say is our most significant walkabout with culture hand in hand, which absolutely brings that spirituality even further, which we will talk about on further podcasts. But it is one of the common questions “where to next?” and we have to be totally honest with you. We never have any idea.

Lorenzo:

We don't.

Maeve:

We don't know where we're going to be next week. Well, we do at the moment cause we're in a house sit, but we don't know. We trust. We will be exactly where we need to be, but we really don't know where we'll be in a year's time, in two years, time, five years time.

Lorenzo:

And the funny thing is that life is more fruitful in this way.

Maeve:

It is, it has mystery. It has mystery and magic. 

Lorenzo:

It's not just about mystery and magic. It's about not having a timeframe and a destination gives you a point of view that is absolutely priceless. And if I may suggest something is… try. For…let's say you have two weeks on holiday, okay? Get on the road and go somewhere. Point your finger in one direct and go somewhere by yourself. And see what's going on.

Maeve:

It doesn't even need to be by yourself. We've done it together. So families do it together, but try and remove the control of the plan. Try and remove each day has a schedule. Try and allow it to evolve just as it needs to evolve. And whether that is even three hours on a Saturday and just go and see, sit in nature, let yourself be guided. Listen to the birds, maybe follow them, whatever that is, you will discover magic.

Lorenzo:

I can guarantee that you are going to find priceless gifts.

Maeve:

And we have to thank our Indigenous custodians and elders that share this knowledge. Cause walkabout has been a part of them for so, so long and we need to embrace it. Every single one of us on this planet needs to embrace this passage. And it's a passage into our wellbeing. It is a passage into living well.

Lorenzo:

And if you're still asking yourself why, I'll give you three reasons. One, it could be a holiday. Two, it can make you discover things that you've never thought before. Three, it’s going to treat your brain, it’s going to increase your mental health.

Maeve:

It is beautiful. And you know, we'll leave you with that quote from Tolkien from Lord of the Rings.

Lorenzo:

Never knew you were a Hobbit fun.

Maeve:

I'm actually not but I resonate with this quote. Which is… “All that is gold, does not glitter. Not all those who wonder are lost. The old that is strong does not wither. Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed shall the blade that was broken. The crownless, again, shall be king.”

Lorenzo:

Amen.

Maeve:

Thanks again, guys, for joining us for our Mindy Movement podcast, we hope to have you along again on the journey someday soon.

Lorenzo:

Absolutely. And it's been a pleasure.

Maeve:

Namaste

Lorenzo:

Namaste.

Thanks for listening to the Mindy Movement Podcast. You can find more content, free meditations, brain entraining music and much much more our website, at www.soulfulsoundwaves.com

You can also be a part of our journey on Instagram and Facebook, and we look forward to our next time together. Thank you for flying Soulful Soundwaves.