Happiness in a First People’s Community in New South Wales, Australia

Ngiyampaa First People in the all-Indigenous community of Murrin Bridge, central-western New South Wales, Australia colloquially refer to happiness as ‘enjoying life’ and ‘being well’. They maintain particular emphases on people’s personal positioning in kin-related networks (relatedness) with others; and the ways in which the social presence and engagements of their bodies within that network are vital for people’s constituting of what it means to be well and to enjoy life. Leonie and Carl’s story present two amongst numerous other examples from Murrin Bridge that are typical expressions of those meanings, locally. What each of their stories illustrate is that the social presence of people’s bodies is understood as vehicles expressing the relationship between Indigenous, communal, internal experiences and their connections with others. If culturally safe and, hence, commonly, appropriate acknowledgements of those understandings are to be achieved, this point is vital and is to be considered both an inherent component and continuing priority.