Uploaded April 2008 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Basil "Mulla" Sumner, an elder and leader in the Ngarrindjeri community in South Australia, tells us about growing up on an Aboriginal settlement and describes its transformation into a wasteland at the hands of Euro-Australian authorities. Mulla contrasts the Aboriginal view of land as mother with the "greed and destruction" of white colonizers that has already begun to backfire. Mulla says that Aboriginals and other indigenous cultures have a lot to offer the dominant cultures; but, he questions, do they really want to learn?
Basil "Mulla" Sumner, an elder and leader in the Ngarrindjeri community in South Australia, tells us about growing up on an Aboriginal settlement and describes its transformation into a wasteland at the hands of Euro-Australian authorities. Mulla contrasts the Aboriginal view of land as mother with the "greed and destruction" of white colonizers that has already begun to backfire. Mulla says that Aboriginals and other indigenous cultures have a lot to offer the dominant cultures; but, he questions, do they really want to learn?
