Teacher background information

This elaboration provides an opportunity for students to learn about First Nations peoples’ ecocentric perspectives. It allows students to investigate how this worldview, based on and encompassing an intimate knowledge of the complex inter-relationships that exist within ecosystems, aims to protect and sustain the natural environment and ensures sustainable harvesting practices. 

First Nations peoples of Australia possess some of the oldest and most in-depth traditional ecological knowledge in the world. This knowledge, having been amassed and refined over tens of thousands of years, is the culmination of the direct observation of the patterns and relationships that exist within individual ecosystems. First Nations Australians’ ecological perspective places humans as an integral part of an interdependent ecosystem, rather than being above or separate from it. This view incorporates a deep appreciation of, and respect for, the environment and embodies a responsibility for maintaining ecosystems and utilising them in a sustainable way; that is for Caring for Country. 

This perspective, which sees resource management as a two-way interaction between people and country, may be contrasted to the western notion of ‘managing land’, which has been perceived as a linear, one-way process in which people take specific actions to affect the environment. For example, since colonisation farmers have been clearing land, modifying soil structure and nutrients, and using ground water for irrigation to cultivate crop species that are not endemic to Australia. Often, these actions have resulted in significant damaging impacts to ecosystems. 

Caring for Country involves deep understandings of the local environment and the interdependence of its flora and fauna. It also relies on highly detailed knowledge of cyclic biological events and the seasonal movement of faunal species. This knowledge allows for the sustainable harvesting of plants and animals, ensuring the continuous availability of food and other resources, while simultaneously minimising negative impacts.  

A well-known example of this practice is the longstanding sustainable harvesting of turtles and dugongs. Archaeological evidence confirms that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been consuming large quantities of dugongs and turtles for thousands of years. Only recently have the populations of these species declined considerably in many areas. Saltwater Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the north of Australia are, and have been, essential components within their marine ecosystems. As such, they are acutely aware of their interdependence and reliance upon the marine environment. Important food resources, such as dugong and turtle, are essential to these communities. To ensure their continued access to dugong and turtle, sophisticated and complex protocols regarding who, where and how they are hunted, including how the animal is killed, butchered and shared among the community have been developed. For example, young male dugongs are preferred whilst pregnant females and females with calf are avoided. 

There are many other examples of hunting and harvesting practices that do not disrupt the breeding cycles and reproductive events of essential inter-dependent flora and fauna. By investigating an ecosystem, possibly in collaboration and consultation with local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, students can gain an appreciation of the intricacies and complexities of the inter-relationships that exist between the biotic and abiotic factors within the ecosystem and the role Indigenous people have and are playing in maintaining the ecosystem. They will also have opportunities to learn how contemporary scientific research can be advanced by incorporating, with appropriate permissions, traditional ecological knowledge into project methodologies and land management and restoration practices.