When the Whales Arrive
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
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Writing this month’s Wild Wisdom practices and Notes from the Pathway of Wonder and Awe crystallised something for me — that we lose so much spiritual and creative essence when we live outside of a sense of kinship.
When the whales arrive along our coast, the whole community is unified with a sense of wonder and excitement. They migrate along our coast shortly after giving birth in the Great Australian Bight — one of their main nurseries in the southern hemisphere.
To see the great Southern Right Whales breach or cruise close enough to shore that we can see their calves brings a sense of profound and utter joy.
When word spreads that they are here, people come from all around to catch even a glimpse of these near mythic beings. Their migration time is nearing and I can’t wait.
Many seafaring cultures see whales as ancestors, ocean elders — wisdom keepers of the high seas. We are only beginning to understand their deeper role — how they move through the oceans as wayfinders, navigating vast distances and distributing nourishment as they go. They bring stories, lore, and deep magic to our shores — enshrining a way of belonging as they unify us in a sense of oneness through their magnificent, awe-inspiring presence.
Wonder and awe are the magical ingredients that bring us inside the field of belonging.
With this comes the necessary virtue of respect.
As a saltwater person, I experienced this in a life affirming way on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) with the Quandamooka people. The hump back whale is very important to these people culturally — and they are recognised as kin.
Over 40,000 of them migrate along the Hump Back Highway, through the southern coral sea, each year heading north to calve, returning south a few months later when the babies are old enough to swim great distances.
During one of my visits we were invited to a Ceremony of Welcome for the Whales which took place high on sea cliffs that command a prime view of the ocean and the arrival of the whales. The fires are lit and dancing is performed where the whales can see and hear, the firelight, dancing, songs and stories of welcome.
These ceremonies have been handed down over thousands of years and they hold the familiarity of welcome and kinship.
Beneath our skin we are all kin ( Gay Bradshaw trans-species psychology )
A threshold before us is the understanding that new ways evolve from old ways. That old knowledge systems hold our evolution in steadiness.
In traditional societies Kinship systems are cultural lifelines, ensuring that knowledge, respect for Country, and ancestral connections endure.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are the oldest continuous cultures in the world, with deep-rooted traditions, complex societal systems, and a profound connection to Country. Central to these cultures are kinship systems and totems, which govern social structure, responsibilities, relationships, and identity.
Kinship determines how people relate to one another, their roles, their responsibilities,
and the way they move through the world.
It extends beyond human relationships to include land, animals, and the spiritual forces that are part of life. While kinship systems are diverse across different Nations, they share a common foundation: a deep respect for life, for community, and for Country.
Family, in this understanding, is expansive.
I have spent time in Kakadu, in the Northern Territory, where this way of understanding kinship is still practiced by a continuous living culture of more than 65,000 years.
The responsibility of kinship is woven through the family system. For example, women of a generation within a family group are the mothers of all the daughters born in the next generation and the grandmothers of all the granddaughters. They are never alone. If something happens to the birth mother the daughters have their other mothers.
Within this kinship system is the recognition of natural law, of all relations and the importance of totems that define our relationship with each other and with the natural world. When I received my totem it was a blessing, a responsibility and carries a deep sense of belonging - to the culture and to country. It deepened the resonance I feel with the place, the dreaming there and the way of being with life.
There, kinship creates safety, belonging and law — from marriage and relationships to honouring the law of the land, what the nature spirits teach and the recognition that every part of nature has a living, spiritual force.
A vital act of responsibility that has been carried out for thousands of years is mosaic burning. Patches of spear grass are set alight throughout a certain time of year, ensuring that the monsoon forests and water ways are protected, regenerate and the threat of wild fire is almost non existent. This practice has never faltered in this area. It is caring for country and is an intertwined part of life for everyone there.
Sharing, respect for Elders, custodianship of land and species, and the importance of community over individualism are part of this system.
Belonging is not something we need to search for, but something we are already part of.
Suzanne Simard says Indigenous knowledge grounded in systems thinking, ‘places people inside nature, not apart from it, so harm to land becomes harm to ourselves, and care becomes an obligation to future generations, human and nonhuman alike.’
The gift of being human is that we have the capacity to perceive what is not always visible — to recognise the deeper layers of life through ceremony, prayer and presence. Across traditions, there is an understanding that every form of life carries its own medicine — the plants, the animals, the waters, and even the stars, moon and sun.
As humans, we are part of this living field, with the ability to influence and tend it. This is not separate from us — it is part of our nature. We have always been in relationship with life in this way.
With this comes responsibility.
We are not outside the balance of life, but participants within it — carrying, since the earliest times, the care of what sustains us. Through the ways we create, honour and remember — through beauty, ritual and relationship — we contribute to the wellbeing of the whole.
To remember our place in the whole Earth system is to return to our role as caretakers of the Earth.
Much love
Pilgrimage
