Kanyini: Love with Responsibility
How can we support one another during these tipping-point times, instead of fueling the divisions and false narratives driving our world to the brink of collapse? How do we counter the deep, ancient layers of fear and survival instincts activating in our collective psyche as tensions rise, divisions deepen, and climate conditions spiral out of control?
This article offers essential wisdom for these challenging times from one of the world’s oldest continuously living cultures — the Indigenous peoples of Australia, often referred to as Australian Aboriginals. Their teaching of Kanyini — Love with Responsibility — carries vital lessons for navigating our shared crises. While the term “Australian Aboriginals” might suggest a single culture, it is important to note that the Indigenous peoples of Australia are incredibly diverse in their kinship systems, languages, cosmologies, and ways of living.
As the polycrisis deepens, with increasing climate extremes and the reality that we’ve already surpassed 1.5°C of warming, we are burdening future generations with insurmountable challenges. Many people feel trapped in societal systems that breed division and fail to address the problems created by centuries of arrogance, greed, ignorance, and denial.
While returning to earlier ways of living may not provide the solution, I believe the vast wisdom of indigenous cultures offers essential ‘medicine’ for healing the wounds we have inflicted on ourselves, each other, and the Earth. The dream of modern progress has turned into a nightmare for many. Join me here in exploring the wisdom of Kanyini, from the desert lands of Australia.
The Wisdom of Kanyini
“Kanyini is best expressed in English as the combination of the two words ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Unconditional Love’, but it is actually a relationship; it is an enormous caring with no limit — it has no timeframe: it is eternal” ~ Uncle Bob Randall, former Yankunytjatjara Elder and Custodian of the Uluru Sacred Heritage, Australia
The elders shared with me that they understood long ago that their purpose was to preserve these ancient wisdoms — not just for their community, but for the larger human family. Uncle Bob Randall explains in this video what living from unconditional love with responsibility means to him.
In this article, “Land” is capitalized to emphasize that it is a being, not just a place — reflecting how Indigenous Australian elders and healers referred to it during my years in Australia (1998–2006). They taught me that “Land” is not merely the physical place where you live but represents your living relationship with the Earth and the Spirit of the Land that nurtures and grows you as a person.
During those eight formative years, I was fortunate to learn from several elders and medicine men and women whose teachings continue to guide my life and work today. In sharing their wisdom here, I hope to help you deepen your humanity and walk a path of unconditional love with responsibility.
The teaching of Kanyini, according to Uncle Bob Randall, is based on four key dimensions of Aboriginal life, each guided by universal principles:
- Ngura — A sense of belonging to home and Land.
- Walytja — Family, connecting with life.
- Kurunpa — Psyche, Spirit or Soul.
- Tjukurrpa — Creation period, also called ‘the Dreamtime,’ and the right way to live.
The Principle of Ngura
Ngura reminds us that we are deeply connected to, and an intrinsic part of, the Land. We are nature. We belong to the Land that nurtures us. Land is alive, as a being, offering us a home in the natural world where we can grow and flourish in community with life and one another.
When we lose our sense of Ngura, we become alienated, isolated, and disconnected from the larger realities of life. We no longer feel at home in ourselves or the world around us.
In modern societies, worth is often measured by what we produce and achieve, not by who we inherently are. This undermines our sense of belonging to the Land and to life itself. One elder explained how modern disruptions to “oursness” and our disconnection from life as family lead to mental and physical illnesses that were rare among their tribes.
The Principle of Walytja
Walytja teaches us that we are all part of one living family, children of the Earth. When our sense of kinship with life erodes, we lose our ability to receive spiritual nourishment from life and the Earth, our mother.
When we reduce our relationship with the Land to a mere physical place, we separate ourselves from the ecology of interbeing that grows us into caring human beings.
The Principle of Kurunpa
Kurunpa refers to our spiritual essence — our psyche, spirit, or soul — and connects us to one another and to the life around us. When we are grounded in our spiritual nature, life becomes a quest for wisdom and consciousness. We gain the clarity and strength to learn from the challenges we face.
In touch with our spiritual nature, our hearts are sustained by deep, unconditional love. When we reduce our relationship with life to one that is materialistic and deterministic, we block ourselves from experiencing this love.
By connecting with ourselves, others, and life through Kurunpa, we begin to feel a profound connection with the whole of existence. Without this connection, we may feel lost, lonely, and as if our lives lack purpose.
The Principle of Tjukurrpa
Tjukurrpa, often translated as Dreamtime, is more than just dreams — it refers to an ongoing, multidimensional process of creation based on universal principles and sacred laws that transcend physical reality. From a modern cosmological perspective, we could say that Tjukurrpa refers to the nonlocal principles underlying physical reality and consciousness.
The elders shared with me that this knowledge is sacred and transmitted through spiritual powers from the ancestral Creator Beings of Tjukurrpa. By receiving and living these transmissions, one becomes a Custodian of the wisdom that sustains us.
From Tjukurrpa comes the understanding of the right way to live in harmony with sacred universal principles that apply to all forms and expressions of life and consciousness.
Practicing Kanyini in Daily Life
Wisdom teachings like Kanyini are often not passed down to our children. In societies governed by the laws of modern economies rather than universal principles of life, it can be challenging to view our lives as a sacred, unfolding quest. Yet, whether or not we believe in Tjukurrpa, we are all part of a living web of life. Every action and way of being sends ripples through this larger fabric of existence, both seen and unseen.
To live according to the principles of Kanyini, begin by opening your mind and heart to the rhythms and cycles of your life, body, and mind. Seek the patterns that connect us in our membership of life rather than what divides us. Trust your intuition and listen to the whispers of your heart — it knows who you are and how to heal and grow in consciousness.
By living as a sacred gift, through quiet observation and deep listening, you become a living expression of Kanyini, and you discover how to love with responsibility.
Deep Listening from quiet still awareness
One of my favorite resources for entering the spacious awareness of Kanyini is a video by Aboriginal elder Miriam Rose Ungunmeer. She introduces the practice of Dadirri, or "inner deep listening and quiet still awareness."
“Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness. There is no need of words.” ~ Miriam Rose Ungunmeer
The practices of Kanyini and Dadirri help us heal the worlds we live in, expanding and deepening our capacity to love unconditionally and responsibly. By practicing this enormous caring in our daily lives, and including ourselves in this care, we create a world that is safe and welcoming.
Become a Custodian for Our World and Future
Life is entrusted to us in custodianship. We do not own life, nor can we control it. We can, however, care for it, and in doing so, we enhance the lives of others. Become a custodian for our world and its future, starting by caring for your life and the lives entrusted to you.
“We are only Caretakers for our time on this Earth, for our children’s children who are going to come after us. We are not the owners, we are the carers, that is the law of survival for every single one of us. Care for everything, care for each other. When we start caring for what needs caring for, which is Mother Earth, our waterways, our environment, our air, .. we got a lot to do. We are caretakers for Mother Earth. Let’s care, let us be that. Knowing it is for our children’ s children’s children, and not for us to abuse.” ~ Uncle Bob Randall
Honor your life as a sacred gift, even if it has brought hardship. Nurture the seeds of happiness that lie dormant within your experiences, so they may bloom into joy, gratitude, and wisdom.
Acknowledgments and Thanks
With immense gratitude to Uncle Bob and all the Custodians from whom I’ve had the honor to learn, listen, and spend time. Special thanks to Dr. Anne-Marie LaMonde and Dr. Christopher Chase for their valuable feedback and support on an earlier version of this article.
To you, dear reader, thank you for taking the time to read this article and reflect on these teachings. If this article has resonated with you, please show your support by clapping below and sharing it with others!
N.B. This article is based on an earlier version, which was first published in 2017 via UPLIFT Connect.
REFERENCES
- Sharing Culture
- Bob Randall, Resurgence & Ecologist, Issue 243, July/August 2007
- Dadirri Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness, A reflection by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr
Written by Dr. Anneloes Smitsman — CEO & Founder of EARTHwise Centre.
