TWO authorities govern the home: one is in charge, in principle, of all domestic realms; the other is the proverbial hunter. This hunter’s task, from the first eras, was to provide, to protect, and to punish the lawbreakers beneath the sun or in the shadows of the night and its order… or so it was decreed in some gathering beneath the moon, before a pondering tribe entrenched in strange beliefs towards obedience.

Today, with its echoes of a new order, there may well be a new festival to commence and empower new laws and rules to be perceived as sacred, be it religious or enforced by those who consider themselves masters of the game.

From our matriarchal and patriarchal celebrations to the sacred places and the observing cosmos, there our species shaped what was selfish and what should serve. Our beginnings were not democratic, and in many areas of our accepted norms, the impulses from the past lightless nights still compel their influences, defying our electric nights and new conversations through more powerful instruments of punishment and resistance.

One fact remains in our darkest beliefs: we still believe through questions to forces that withhold participation, as we humans violate reason with loathsome plots from ages past, sheltered today beneath a more painful desire, mirrored to the same desires of times gone by.

Our ancient and civilised belief systems revolve today and are defined by modern weapons, but carry the same suspicions and superstitious onslaughts intended, though shaped in times past. What is needed is a broader conversation affixed to the practical interests of those involved, whether the conversation must be conducted in an atmosphere transcending the familiar, for example.

Some years ago, a case was examined by a senior court officer. It seemed simple: a young man who had worked in the gold bush from his early teens was brought before the court over his mother adding his aunt to his budget. What was peculiar was whether the law officer enquired whether the young man had an account in his name, in case of any emergency he might find himself in.

I had written a letter in this column because I know of the era when young men were taken out of school, because, as it was then said, “males can always find work”. I suffered that briefly, but in my time there were options such as the Youth Corps and later the GNS, and young settlers at places like Kuru Kuru Young Settlements.