"A person isn’t some private entity travelling unaffected through time and space as if sealed off from the rest of the world in a thick shell … perhaps we can say we are only alive when we live the life of the world and so live the sufferings and joys of others--THICH NHAT HAHN in “The Miracle of Mindfulness”

WHILE BUZZACOTT AND THE WALKERS carried a message of peace, they were not always peacefully received. In one case, a pastoralist refused the walkers permission to pass through his land and threatened to shoot them. Buzzacott admits that as an experience, “you couldn’t get any rougher than that.”He adds that he recognizes the pastoralist’s response as being representative of the “sickness” that needs healing. “Peace making should bring all that out," Buzzacott says. "I think that people are sometimes threatened because they think you want the backyard or whatever it is, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We just want to get the message through”.

But if getting the message through to the world was the main motivation behind this epic journey, it could seem almost naive that Buzzacott chose to literally walk each step of the way. In these times of global communication and instant travel, an email deluge or a protest convoy at the Olympic Games site, may well have generated more media interest, more quickly, with less personal cost.

But according to Buzzacott, it is precisely this attitude which stands as an obstacle on our path toward peace. For if we cannot touch the Earth deeply, how can we hope to touch peace? As we criss-cross the landscape in cars, buses and trucks, planes and trains, Buzzacott claims that we fail to connect with the land. We may think we have a relationship with our country, yet we are reluctant to experience it. It is only through walking the land, Buzzacott says, that we are faced with ourselves and the results of our actions:

“I think its good to talk about doing something like this. A lot of people talk about it. But actually doing it is a totally different thing. I mean, I have walked the land when I was a baby. I walked when I was a young man. But to go and walk it now – it is really something. To pass through some of the different sacred places, the special places; to meet the local indigenous people where they show you what’s important about this hill or about that river, or desert, or lake. And to see the pain in the towns and communities, it hits you like a brick wall. To realize all the pain and misery and to see the healing that needs to be done. But the other side is to feel the spirit of the old country – that’s just really good.”

"When we are one or two, we began to take tottering steps. Now we have to learn to walk again – slowly, with joy and ease.-- THICH NHAT HAHN from “The Long Road Turns to Joy”

OVERFLOWING WITH REFERENCES TO Australian indigenous culture, and even celebrations of it, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were dubbed the ‘Reconciliation Games.’ But while these very public displays of unity caught the attention of the media at home and abroad, Buzzacott’s marathon efforts in reconciliation went largely unnoticed. As the nation rejoiced at indigenous runner Cathy Freeman’s glorious win, far fewer embraced the peace walkers at their 3000-kilometer destination. Camped for the duration of the Games at the site of Captain Cook’s first landing, Buzzacott’s invitation to Prime Minister John Howard to join him for peace talks around the sacred fire, fell on deaf ears.

Yet for the walkers who joined Kevin Buzzacott in his four-month journey and for those who encountered them along the way, their simple act of placing one foot in front of the other, represents one collective step along the path to peace.

For as Thich Nhat Hanh says in his guide to walking meditation, “The Long Road Turns to Joy,” to take one step freely and happily, touching the Earth mindfully, is to “do it for ourselves and for all previous and future generations." Only when we can walk the land with all our hearts, he says, will we “all arrive at the same time and find peace and happiness together.”

TO LEARN MORE: To find out more about the Arabunna people and the 'Keepers of Lake Eyre, ' visit the website http://www.lakeeyre.green.net.au/index.html

ELLEN STUEBE is a freelance writer and radio broadcaster living in Sydney. She studies the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn with the Lotus Buds Sangha. Her dharma name is Silent Smile of the Heart. This is her first article for Hundred Mountain.

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