Author Description

We live in difficult times: domestic violence, terrorism, gross exploitation by various governments and financial institutions, ecological destruction, global warming………the list goes on. We now know from major advances in developmental neuroscience that if there is significant abuse or neglect in the first three years of life, the results can be catastrophic. If we could only get those first three years of life right, a huge range of negative behavioural consequences would be reduced to more manageable levels……less violence, less terrorism, more empathy and compassion, more energy to apply to positive ends.Compared with other health problems, the burden of child maltreatment is substantial, indicating the importance of prevention efforts to address this high prevalence. How can we ease and amend all this? What we need are programs to nurture the nurturers. When I was being mentored by my Aboriginal elders in Central Australia, we had to exchange dreams. I dreamt about a Dreamtime ancestor whose task was to nurture the nurturers. But his domain extended to the entire planet. Wati Kanyilpai begins his global journey from Central Australia, looking after all the nurturers, especially the mothers, human and animal, that nurture their infants. But his nurturance extends to anyone or anything that cares for other beings. What we need are Ministries in Early Childhood Nurturance, departments that can identify mothers/fathers at risk and in stress, and programmes that protect and nurture them. This capacity to nurture the nurturers, to look after all the beings who already look after other beings, is a vital task if we are to save this suffering Planet.