‘“Druids Down Under”: Australian Druidry As Adaptation and Innovation By Carole Cusack

https://www.academia.edu/43912689/_Druids_Down_Under_Australian_Druidry_As_Adaptation_and_Innovation The arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 marked the start of European colonialism in Australia, a continent inhabited for 60,000 years by Indigenous peoples. White settlers were Christians, but around one-third of the convicts in the early colony were Irish, and Celtic traditions from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man all took root in this new nation. In the twenty-first century cultural institutions like the Celtic Council of Australia and the annual Australian Celtic Festival at Glen Innes celebrate these historical ties. Australia is also home to a thriving alternative religious and spiritual subculture, in which Celtic-tinged Paganism and Druidry are two prominent groups. While linked to communities in Britain, Australian Pagans and Druids adapt northern hemisphere traditions under the southern stars and innovate in drawing Celtic beliefs and practices closer to both the Indigenous traditions and the distinctive Australian environment. This chapter considers the presence of British Druidic orders in Australia, the facilitation of Druidic events by visiting leaders and teachers, and the emergence of a uniquely Australian Druidry, evidenced by Julie Brett’s Australian Druidry: Connecting with the Sacred Landscape (2017). ...