The Jew in the Lotus
Images by Sarah New and us.
We first met Sarah New at a Tibetan Buddhist Centre where we would attend Buddhist meditations and teachings; we also connected at a weekly yoga class in Naarm / Melbourne, and then later, when Sarah befriended Rinchen’s mother Anne. Sarah became one of Anne’s main friends who helped care for her as she passed from cancer.
Sarah also used to host an annual afternoon tea garden party in her garden, an open garden of sorts, but for her Buddhist friends, associates and community.
“Don’t kill anything; I’m talking about critters. They are a part of the ecology and biology of the garden. They are important for the plants and have a symbiotic relationship with them in a way.”
Sarah, a Polish Jew, first discovered Tibetan Buddhism in 1984 while living in Boorloo / Perth, Western Australia. It was the same year she went to live in the Kimberley to teach in the Noonkanbah remote community. Sarah said this was a very memorable year of her life.
Sarah had lived in Boorloo for several years before moving to Noonkanbah. She had attended protests in Boorloo for Noonkanbah against a mining company where she would chant “Yah Yah Noonkanbah”. She didn’t realise she would go on to live and teach in the same community for more than two years. Sarah had previously taught in an Indigenous community in Arnhem Land for three years, which she thoroughly enjoyed, so when the opportunity arose to teach in Noonkanbah, she took it.
The Noonkanbah dispute in Western Australia was an important chapter in the struggle for Australian Aboriginal rights in the 1970s-80s that put land rights on the national agenda and led to the foundation of the Kimberley Land Council. In June 1979, the Western Australian government approved oil drilling exploration by US multinational Amax, despite the location being on sacred land. The Noonkanbah community in the Kimberley region resisted from the outset. Their firm stance shocked the establishment, with the Daily News noting that it was “the first time in WA an organised group of Aborigines (was) determined to keep outsiders off what they consider to be their land”. On 15 June, the Noonkanbah community locked the gate and refused to let company representatives onto their land.
Some photos from Sarah’s time teaching in the Noonkanbah community.
Whilst in Boorloo, before moving to Noonkanbah, Sarah had been sent a flyer to attend a weekend meditation retreat with a Tibetan Buddhist teacher from a friend. They practised a breathing meditation during the retreat, which Sarah found beneficial. Sarah remembers being taught about Tara, a female Buddha symbolising wisdom, compassion and protection. She is also known as the mother of all Buddhas.
Tara is often depicted seated on a lotus throne with her right leg outstretched and ready to help if needed. Tara has her right hand in varada mudra, a symbolic hand gesture that represents generosity, compassion, and the granting of gifts. She has her left hand in the vitarka mudra, a hand gesture that represents the transmission of Buddhist teachings, holding a lotus in full bloom. In Buddhism, the lotus flower symbolises purity, enlightenment, and self-awareness. A mudra is sacred gesture, they are prominent in the iconography of Indian religions, including Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
“The women and girls in the Noonkanbah community would gather native water lilies that grew in billabongs for their roots and stems to eat. ”
Sarah said that after this, when she went to live and teach in the Kimberley, the women and girls in the Noonkanbah community would gather native water lilies that grew in billabongs for their roots and stems to eat. Water lilies look very similar to lotus flowers. Sarah was taking photos, and a young girl called Rachel came up to her and did the exact pose and mudra of Tara whilst holding a water lily in full bloom, which Sarah found moving. Sarah said that from then on, whenever she looked at the photo of Rachel, she felt she was seeing an emanation of Tara.
Sarah’s photo of young Rachel from the Noonkanbah community.
Later on, Sarah introduced her daughter Rani to a Buddhist Lama. Lama is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru, meaning "heavy one". Dharma means a combination of morality and spiritual discipline that guides one in living one's life. Dharma is a concept with multiple meanings within Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. In Sarah’s case, it refers to the teachings of the Buddha.
Sarah’s daughter had an instant and profound connection to the Buddhist teacher and the Dharma. She went on to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun, where she became known as Tenzin Konchok, her ordained name. Sarah’s daughter and only child sadly passed away from cancer in 1999 when she was only thirty-one years old.
Whilst we ourselves have been disheartened and put off to a certain extent by formal Tibetan Buddhist institutions, we have maintained a lovely connection to Sarah and her garden. Sarah’s garden is organic, overgrown and natural, and when you enter her backyard, it feels like you are entering a secret garden of sorts.
“I was born in the house I live in, in 1945 and grew up living here.”
Who are you?
Sarah New, I was born in the house I live in, in 1945 and grew up living here with my parents and brother. I left home, travelled nationally and internationally, and then returned permanently to live with my Dad in his final days. I have lived in my family home ever since.
Sarah sitting in her garden.
My parents were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust. My mother Fejga, which means bird in Yiddish, was in the last lot of Jewish people to escape Poland just before the Nazis killed many Polish Jews in the war. Her sister had a child and was meant to leave just after my mother, but she and her child were both sadly killed by the Nazis, so my mother was lucky to get out.
“My parents were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust.”
My father came to Australia almost two years before my mother as he had cousins here, and when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and killed some 7,000 Jews and began forced labour, he knew things would not go well any time soon. Over three million Polish Jews, which was 90% of the country's Jewish population at the time, were murdered primarily at the Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmo, Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps. Polish Jews made up half of the Jewish Holocaust victims.
My first language was Yiddish, which my family spoke at home. My parents didn’t speak Polish unless they were trying to keep something secret from my brother and I.
My parents sent me to Israel in 1963 when I was eighteen to find a husband; a lot of Jewish parents did this. I didn’t find a husband but spent sixteen months on a kibbutz learning Hebrew, which was good; there are a lot of Hebrew words in Yiddish, so I could pick it up well.
Before I was sent to Israel, I had done a year of art school at RMIT. Because my parents wanted me to find a Jewish husband, they sent me to Israel to continue my studies. I went to art school in Jerusalem when I first got to Israel, but I dropped out after three days because my friend did, and I also wanted to do my own thing, being on my own for the first time without my parents.
“My parents sent me to Israel in 1963 when I was eighteen. I so wished I could have visited and met the Palestinian embroiderers, particularly as an artist. ”
I lived in England after Israel as I got into art school at the Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London. I returned to Australia after my time in London with my daughter Rani, born in 1967.
I got kicked out of art school because I was meant to focus on graphic design, but I ended up liking printmaking more. You were meant to pick a major and stick with that; I had initially picked graphic design. However, I met a man from the print-making school; he was Julie Christie’s boyfriend at the time, John Parsons; I studied etching with him. Then there was a wood engraving lecturer with no students, so I learnt from him too. But then I got kicked out for not staying with my initial graphic design major program.
The old city of Jerusalem was in Palestine; a border or wall divided Israel and Palestine; if you had a Baptism Certificate, you could visit the other side during Easter. We had some Christian Dutch friends, and they came back with the most beautiful Palestinian embroidery; I so wished I could have visited and met the Palestinian embroiderers, particularly as an artist. My Mum was creative; she did embroidery and amazing doodles while on the phone.
The entire situation between Israel and Palestine is extremely sad and shameful; the Palestinians are being treated how the Nazis treated us Jews. The violent and inhumane actions of Hamas are also awful. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’. As a Buddhist, I believe non-violence is the only right path. I went along to a ‘Free Palestine’ protest in the City about it, but I didn’t know if I was welcome or safe there as a Jew.
A mixed media portrait of Sarah in her kitchen, a copy of the original, that was entered in the Archibald Prize.
Where is your patch?
Brighton, Victoria, Australia where I was born and have spent the majority of my life. It’s Bunurong / Boon Wurrung country. There was a war between Bunurong / Boon Wurrung and Kurnai that took place near where I live called the Warrowen massacre. I heard N’arweet Carolyn Briggs talk about it on the radio.
“A lot of stuff that grows in my garden comes from the compost I spread around, so it’s always a surprise.”
What do you grow?
A variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and weeds. Including apples, apricots, avocados, borage, buddleia, grapes, grevilia, dandelion, feverfew, figs, hawthorn, hydrangeas, lavender, lettuce, lemons, loquats, nasturtiums, nectarines, parsley, plums, poppies, quinces, rose hips, tomatoes, tree dahlias, violets, and more. A lot of stuff that grows in my garden comes from the compost I spread around, so it’s always a surprise.
I harvest dandelion leaves from my garden every day to eat; I usually have them in a foraged salad I make. I make baskets out of vines from my garden, including honeysuckle. I use these to collect the ingredients for my daily salads.
Sarah’s most recent handmade basket.
I like watching all the different birds that enter the garden to feed off or rest in the trees; wattlebirds love the grevilia. I never usually get very much fruit as the birds usually get most of them first, but I don’t mind. Flies also lay their eggs in the fruit so there can be maggots from time to time.
Nectarines in Sarah’s winnowing baskets in her kitchen.
The hydrangeas along the driveway can get a dark spotting, so I combine dishwashing liquid with water and spray the dark spots, which seems to help. Besides that, I don’t spray anything.
“I raised funds for a nunnery in Tibet with the flowers I sold to Vue de monde so that was worthwhile.”
I used to supply my edible flowers and leaves to Vue de monde restaurant. It was borage for the first three years, and then they stopped coming up, but they weren’t in trend anymore, but nasturtiums were. The restaurant wanted the leaves off the nasturtiums. They then asked for flowers, but I didn’t do certain flowers as too many critters lived in certain ones, and I didn’t want to harm them or take their home away from them. My daughter said that the only good thing I ever taught her in her life was not to kill things.
Then the restaurant complained because they wanted very small leaves, micro greens I think they are called. They were 20 cents for each, which equated to $20 for a punnet of leaves or flowers. I raised funds for a nunnery in Tibet with the flowers I sold to Vue de monde so that was worthwhile. I used to say the mantra ‘om mani padme hum’ as I counted the flowers and leaves into the punnets. Om mani padme hum translates to “hail jewel in the lotus”, a metaphor for the journey towards enlightenment, from the mud up to the lotus blossom. It’s meant to help people and is good to say on the food we eat.
“I developed the garden without planning; it developed and evolved in its own way really. The garden showed me things, and I worked around that.”
How did you end up in the garden?
My family home was the first place where I got into gardening. My parents didn’t garden much, but they had a gardener to help them keep the garden together. I tried making gardens wherever I stayed and lived at various points, including veggie gardens in the remote Indigenous communities where I taught. After my father passed away, I developed the garden without planning; it developed and evolved in its own way really. The garden showed me things, and I worked around that. I first brought plants and seeds, and then I let things self-seed.
Top gardening tips?
Do I have to answer this? Don’t kill anything; I’m talking about critters. They are a part of the ecology and biology of the garden. They are important for the plants and have a symbiotic relationship with them in a way.
A quote to leave us with?
“Be gentle with the earth and each other (including all living beings, even critters)’ - the Dalai Lama
“I harvest dandelion leaves from my garden every day to eat; I usually have them in a foraged salad I make. ”
A tried-and-true recipe to share?
My dandelion foraged seasonal edible weeds garden salad for one that I eat every day:
· A good handful of dandelion leaves.
· A handful of parsley.
· Freshly picked thyme, spring onion, Japanese red mustard leaves, and lettuce.
· Forage the herbs in your garden; you can add anything edible really.
· Sprinkle a tablespoon of hemp heart oil over the top.
· Sprinkle with a good pinch of Celtic Sea salt.
· If you have cucumbers and tomatoes in season, add those too.
· Serve and eat.
One of the many dandelion plants in Sarah’s garden.
