We are greatly honoured to have Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann
as our first speaker for the COMMON GROUND – Meditation in Australia forum.
Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann is an Aboriginal elder from Naiuyu. An artist and educator, she became the Northern Territory’s first fully qualified Aboriginal teacher, with a deep commitment to ensuring that Aboriginal people had the opportunity to become qualified teachers and to manage their own schools.
In 1988 Miriam Rose was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts by Deakin University, through Batchelor College. Two years later, she began training as a school principal, and in 1993 was appointed to the position of Principal at the St Francis Xavier School at Daly River. She gained her Master of Education Degree, with High Distinction in 1999. The focus of her work for this degree was the integration of traditional and western education for Aboriginal children and adults.
In 1998, Miriam Rose was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, for her services to Aboriginal education and art, and for services to the Nauiyu community.
In recognition of her outstanding service and contribution to the Northern Territory, in acknowledgment of her leadership and example in the fields of Aboriginal education and the visual arts, and for her contribution to the general community Miriam Rose was awarded an honorary doctorate from Northern Territory University.
On January 25, 2021 Miriam Rose was named the Senior Australian of the Year.
For this event Miriam Rose, will talk to us about, and offer us an experience of, dadirri – inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness – which she says is “perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our fellow Australians”.
“When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again.”
“The word, concept and spiritual practice that is dadirri (da-did-ee) is from the Ngan’gikurunggurr and Ngen’giwumirri languages of the Aboriginal peoples of the Daly River region (Northern Territory, Australia).
NGANGIKURUNGKURR means ‘Deep Water Sounds’. Ngangikurungkurr is the name of my tribe. The word can be broken up into three parts: Ngangi means word or sound, Kuri means water, and kurr means deep. So the name of my people means ‘the Deep Water Sounds’ or ‘Sounds of the Deep’.
This reflection is about tapping into that deep spring that is within us. Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’.”
COMMON GROUND – Meditation in Australia
Online Forum 29th May 2021
Tickets via Eventbrite