Learn from indigenous people how to live sustainably

It is often assumed that Australia was born in 1788 when the British fleet placed the first penal colony in Botany Bay, near Sidney. However it is estimated that the first aboriginal population actually joined the continent by sea almost 70.000 years ago.

The cultural, artistic and musical richness of Australian indigenous people is considered to be among the longest surviving human history. Indeed rock paintings dating back 40.000 years and over 200 different languages were used as mean of communication between 600 and 700 political units that were dividing the whole territory. The methods and ways of living carried out by indigenous population are to be considered totally sustainable with the environment. Indeed the connection of native people to the ‘Country’ made these populations custodians of the territory. Life for indigenous people is totally based on the respect of the environment and the idea that what is taken need to be given back.

Since the arrival of the colonisers their populations have plummeted from around 1 million people to just 60.000. The reasons are numerous, ranging from the introduction of new viruses such as measles, to the displacement of the population from the occupied area and to the violent actions against these populations in the years following the colonisation, such as proper extermination and the ‘stolen generation’ process undertaken in the 20th century.

To date there are numerous social problems associated to the co-living of Australians and Aboriginals. Indeed paradoxically the real landowners of the territory have been denied to carry out those activities such as hunt, fishing, fire management and sacred rituals, that have been characterizing the indigenous people survival on the land for more than 250 generations. The lifestyle of those groups has been and is considered by part of the Australian government ‘not evolved enough’ to be kept alive in our present society. Indigenous groups are generally blamed as that part of the community that is not interested in integrating themselves in a more ‘socially just’ society.

As one of the central national problems of this nation, during the next weeks I will be centring my attention on the situation of indigenous people at present times. I will describe briefly the dreamtime stories that characterise such a long living culture and will conclude this topic through an interview to Lexodious Daad, an indigenous component of the Macquarie University.