Dolphins, a Ferry, and the Truth We Already Know
- Gregory Andrews
- 21 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Today, while crossing Port Stephens on the Tea Gardens Ferry, something simple and beautiful happened. Two dolphins began to swim in the bow wave. One person spotted them and pointed. Then another. And soon it seems everyone on the boat was taking turns, leaning over the rail, smiling, laughing, calling to strangers they hadn’t spoken to before.
One woman just kept turning around to anyone who would listen and saying, “This is wonderful! Isn’t this just wonderful!” And it was.
In that moment, nothing else mattered - not politics, not social media, not who we vote for, not the labels we carry around like armour. All that dissolved. We were simply human beings, together, responding with joy to the living pulse of Country.
Everyone Has the Capacity to Connect to Country
I remember two decades ago, a very senior Traditional Custodian in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) said all the children born in Alice Springs Hospital were little Yeperenye babies, because the Dreaming doesn’t care about the colour of your skin.
I always say that too. If you are born on Country, or you live on Country, and if you respect and care for Country, then you can connect to Country and belong to Country. This is so important, especially now - as Australia tries to work out who we are and how we move forward together.
Today on that ferry there were people from every walk of life. Retirees. Locals. Tourists. Sea changers. Green, Labor, and Liberal voters. Recent migrants. And yet, when those dolphins arrived we all responded in the same way. With joy. With awe. With connection.
We are living through a time when climate breakdown is accelerating, when division and hate are being fuelled, when political debate feels like shouting inside an echo chamber. But the truth is far simpler, and much quieter: Country already knows how to bring us back together. It doesn’t ask us to be the same. It just asks us to pay attention.
Today, on the water, nobody needed to be taught how to connect to Country. Everyone just did. It is already inside us. It has always been inside us.
So when I ride into Brisbane for AlterCOP on 17 November, I will speak to this:
We all have a role in caring for Country, because we all already belong to it.
Not by ownership. Not by title. Not by bloodline alone. But by relationship.
Country is the mother that raises all of us, if we let her.
And today, the Dolphins were the teachers. They reminded everyone on the boat - gently and joyfully - of who we are. Not consumers. Not voters. Not opponents. Not identities.
Just human beings, held in relationship with the more-than-human world.
Sometimes the most important truths don’t need to be shouted. Sometimes they just swim alongside the boat. And everyone turns to watch.
