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AFUW-ACT
Inc. Meeting Report
Speaker: Dr. Richard Baker
Dr Richard Baker has degrees in Archaeology and Physical Geography.
He worked as an archaeologist and oral historian in the NT Museum. He
has taught Geography at ANU since 1994 and has won the ANU Vice Chancellor’s
award for teaching excellence. His fascinating talk was on "Caring for
country: Indigenous values toward the environment". Details of his research,
teaching and students can be found at http://sres.anu.edu.au/people/richard_baker
COUNTRY is a term Indigenous Australians have given to the world. It
is a value based term that sees country as nurturing terrain and as
the sum of two way spiritual, economic and social interactions between
people and place.
Richard used his experiences with the Yanyuwa people of Booroloola to
highlight Indigenous values towards the environment. There is a reverence
for any living thing - they talk to animals they have killed and apologise
for killing them. They can monitor the state of the species because
of their very acute observation skills for example hunters check a goose’s
throat to find which grass has been eaten - if it is ordinary grass
then they know food for the geese is low. A grandfather teaches a small
grandchild to sing and dance country songs.
An important aspect of the Yanyuwa traditional environmental knowledge
was the development of various forms of resource and environmental management.
An underlying principle of this is to not waste what you kill or harvest
and conserve living resources. eg flying foxes are not killed until
April when the chicks are weaned.
Indigenous culture is deeply ecological. There is total prohibition
on hunting some animals, as they believe these animals have power to
preserve particular resources. Management is a white fella idea, instead
the Yanyuwa speak of embracing the land or listening to country or making
country safe.
INDIGENOUS SCIENCE - is based on 1000s of years of highly skilled and
locally intense question framing and observation as well as has well
developed systems of communicating the result of their science through
song and dance. Western science is in desperate need of many characteristics
of indigenous science -for example is acutely aware of environment -
interconnections and environment - society interconnections and feedbacks
and is about survival.
THE YANYUWA and THEIR VIEW OF LANDSCAPE - It is a spiritually alive
landscape and is a bountiful supplier of food - the "Supermarket of
the Bush". Human-land relationships are underpinned by an ethos of sustainability.
It was a sustainable landscape - culturally, ecologically and economically.
MOVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY - We need to acknowledge how poorly equipped
human society is to deal with environmental problems and then to put
in place structures and processes to get things done. From around the
world recurring stories of bountiful resources being overused and collapsing
catastrophically. Human survival depends on us doing something. Sustainable
development requires ecological sustainability, economic equity, social
justice and maintenance of cultural diversity.
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