Building Bridges of Communication: Seeking Conversation between Indigenous and Western Cultures through Magical Consciousness

Abstract

My aim in this article is to further work on building bridges of communication between Indigenous and Western worldviews through 'magical consciousness', a pan-human participatory and analogical orientation of mind. In a bid to overcome the many cultural differences that have justified the discrimination and genocide of Indigenous peoples worldwide, and the near hegemony of a science based solely on logical knowledge, I seek by comparison a common ground for mutual understanding. Searching out similarities and differences between the world of the Dreaming of Paddy Compass Namadbara, an Australian 'clever man' of north-west Arnhem Land, and the prophetic mythologies of English eighteenth-century artist and poet William Blake, I suggest that it might be possible to find points of conversation and acceptance through stories and mythologies that could aid the healing of differences.