Outdoor and Environmental Studies Unit
Three
3.1.2
Indigenous Relationships
With Natural
Environments
INDIGENOUS RELATIONSHIPS
WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
•
Beliefs
• Perceptions (what we think)
• Impacts/practices (the effects)
• Interactions (what we do)
Relationships in and with
outdoor environments
Perceptions
(what we think)
Relationships
in and with
Outdoor
Environments
Impacts/
practices
(The effects)
Interactions
(what we do)
BELIEFS
(the dreamtime)
The world was created in the
dreamtime by spirit ancestors.
Equivalent to the bible.
Creation stories explain natural
features, animals and plants
When they died they returned
to the earth or became a natural
feature/plant/animal
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=Jcl2inXgFzA
PERCEPTIONS
They believed that the land owned them,
rather than the other way around.
They had a responsibility to look after the
land/plants/animals
(custodians/Stewardship)
The land would provide for them if looked
after
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qok6YM3E1z8
Custodians
Because the "Stories of the Dreaming" have been handed
down through the generations, they are not 'owned' by
individuals. They belong to a group or nation, and the
storytellers of that nation are carrying out an obligation to
pass the stories along.
The Elders of a nation might appoint a particularly skilful
and knowledgeable storyteller as 'custodian' of the stories
of that people.
With the discouragement and 'unofficial' banning of the
telling of traditional stories, which continued well into the
twentieth century, many stories were 'lost'. The custodians
passed away without being able to hand the stories on. This
was particularly so in the south-east region of Australia.
Storytelling, while explaining the past, helps young
Indigenous Australians maintain dignity and self-respect in
the present.
Present-day custodians of stories play a vital role in
Indigenous communities.
Practices/Management
Semi nomadic lifestyle
Seasonal movements
Few permanent settlements
Hunting and gathering
Firestick farming
Story places/sacred sites
Totems
Small populations
Impacts of Indigenous Cultures
Possible extinction of mega fauna
Creation of grasslands/open woodlands
Introduction of dingo – impact on mainland
Selection of eucalypts over rainforest plants
Relatively little impact over 50,000 years
compared to 200 years of European settlement
Extinction of mega fauna
It is a contentious issue as to whether human
habitation led to the extinction of Australia’s mega
fauna. The link below is from the University of NSW
and give the view that species extinction was more
about climate change
Mega Fauna Extinction and climate
However there is another school of thought that
indigenous populations were the route cause, as
the link below points out.
Mega Fauna and People
Mega fauna
Diprotodon and the short faced
Kangaroo
Diprotodon
Diprotodon optatum, evolved about a
million years ago and may have become
extinct as recently as 15,000 years ago,
has the distinction of being the largest
marsupial ever. It was the size of a
rhinoceros—three metres long, almost
two metres high at the shoulder, and
weighing as much as two tonnes. It had
pillar-like legs and broad footpads, a little
like those of an elephant.
Introduction of the Dingo
According to Dr Tim Flannery, Director of the
South Australian Museum , from about 5,000
years ago, the dingo revolutionised Australian
Aboriginal culture and the natural
environment. Flannery argues that the arrival
of the dingo was closely associated with
profound changes in aboriginal language,
stone tool technology, food production,
population levels and trade patterns. At the
same time, these changes in indigenous
culture were linked to environmental changes
which were, in turn, also associated with the
impact of the dingo.
As Flannery states: "Imagine the boost given to a clan
that could harvest meat twice as rapidly as its
neighbours". The decline in marsupial numbers as a
result of the arrival of the dingo, Flannery further argues
led to an increased abundance of grasses, which in turn
provided the basis for the increased propensity of
Aboriginal people to harvest and eat grass seeds. This
increased propensity appears to have occurred by about
1000 years ago.
This shift in diet may have been associated with a further
increase in human population. As Flannery states:
"In this dingo-driven revolution we see a profound
restructuring of Australia 's ecosystems and human
cultures, which involved a further diminution of the role
of large herbivores, and an increase in human population
fuelled by harvesting newly available plant foods. This
was a dramatic departure from what had gone before."
Aboriginal people after
colonisation
Unfortunately in many parts of the country, aboriginal
people where treated worse than feral animals.
Farmers and landowners would ride into camps
shooting men, women, children and babies for the
sport of it. While this was still considered murder, it
mostly went unreported. Aboriginal people were often
forcibly moved from their land if it was of value to
settlers. Children who had mixed blood, were
routinely taken from their parents and moved to
orphanages across the country (the stolen
generations). A lot of people in more populated areas
of Australian were put onto reservations and missions
operated by the government and the church. Today
aboriginal people make up less than 1% of the
population, they survived in larger numbers in more
remote country areas.
Aboriginal history is unfortunately a very sad one,
however in 1967 they were allowed to vote
(previous to this they could not vote as they were officially
recognised at Fauna – native animals). In 1992 the
landmark ‘Mabo’ case recognized native title of the
first time’. This case disputed the legal principal of
‘Terra Nullius’, by which the British legally occupied
Australia. The British Government successfully
argued that the aborigines did not have a civilised
society, until it was overturned in 1992.
There is very little evidence to back up any of these claims. Gippsland squatter Henry
Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:
The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the
forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they
are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with
… I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland,
in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the
penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black
actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I
would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to
ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom
whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be
extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am
convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether.
Work task 3
Investigate the Indigenous people of Wilson’s
prom, from a historical perspective to current
day.