Tjukurpa Pulka The Road to Eldership How Aboriginal Culture Creates Sacred and Visionary Leaders
Creators: name: Goreng Goreng, Tjanara
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Aboriginal studies
subject: Aboriginal Eldership
subject: Aboriginal Leadership
subject: Sacred Leadership
subject: Indigenous Research Metholodogies
subject: Community Development
subject: Transformational Leadership
subject: Biography
subject: Trauma Recovery
subject: Stolen Generations
subject: Dissociative Identity Disorder
subject: Mental Health
subject: Australian Politics
subject: Indigenous Politics
subject: International Indigenous Leadership
subject: Cultural Studies
subject: FOS: Other humanities

description: Robert Kegan says that sacred leadership is a particular order of consciousness that applies to people who have navigated their emotional stages of development to become individuals who go beyond the ego to become ‘sacred’ in their thinking and being. They are leaders who motivate and inspire others to follow them. In Aboriginal communities in Australia, Elders have always been considered leaders because of similar qualities to those espoused by Kegan and other western sacred and visionary leadership theorists. Indigenous researchers and writers in the field express the wisdom of our Elders as leaders in our language that espouses similar theories of sacredness. This thesis examines Elders as sacred leaders through the process of their development in Aboriginal culture, education and experiences and analyses that through the western and Indigenous leadership theoretical lens. The research was undertaken utilising Robert Kegan’s theories of western leadership, in particular, his work on higher levels of thinking in transformational leadership from an educational psychology perspective and Erik Erickson’s Stages of Human Development in addition examining the research of Indigenous leadership researchers and writers internationally and nationally. In addition, to explain the transformative processes of achieving higher levels of thinking when one’s development is arrested through colonisation, violence, abuse, dependency and acculturation, the thesis seeks to find what practices or events in cultural development supported an individuals’ movement through the levels of thinking to sacred leadership based in these theories. The thesis examines whether these western theories have any application, correlation or parallels in Aboriginal culture. Utilising an Indigenous research methodology, four Aboriginal storytellers on their Roads to Eldership describe their life’s journeys which are then analysed to ascertain their development stages, levels of thinking, and their values and motivations as leaders and Elders. The aim is to ascertain whether these storytellers have achieved higher levels of thinking on their road to Eldership, through navigating their stages of development, and overcoming any arrested development experiences, challenges, adversities and their transformational actions. Furthermore, the thesis shows how Tjukurpa Pulka - following the Law in action, and the inclusion of cultural and ceremonial life - contributes to healing arrested development and enables development to Eldership and the choice to move onto become visionary and sacred leaders. On the basis of my findings, the stories told, point to a contemporary practice of an ancient form of leadership development that mirrors the qualities and traits of higher levels of thinking. It shows how sacred leadership levels can be achieved through participation in cultural life, living in the Tjukurpa – the Law and spiritual business – and engaging in ceremonies, service to community, visioning and healing recovery processes. This study is important to show that Aboriginal culture has had a generational process of educating children and young adults with the vision of creating Elders as leaders who can serve their communities and it crosses clan groups because of the impacts of separation through colonisation. The research has a contribution to make to the maintenance of Aboriginal cultural knowledge specifically and to understanding the oral teachings and learnings of an ancient culture, as well as showing how this information can be applied to leadership development and theory in the present modern world.