• Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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    4 days ago

    That’s right. For example, Australian communists lived in balance with nature for 60,000 years. Then capitalists came and started breaking stuff.

    • essell@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I guess those megafauna who vanished about 59,500 years ago were really messing with the balance.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Regardless of megafaunata, just by being in Australia, humans became an invasive species and did all sorts of damage that invasive species do.

        Worse, indigenous Australians brought the dingo with them. Two very intelligent predators where two didn’t exist before did a lot of damage. Colonizing Europeans also did a lot of damage and nothing that the indigenous people in Australia did justifies what Europeans (basically just the British, let’s be fair) did, but pretending that indigenous humans aren’t as flawed as all other humans does them a disservice. It does not help indigenous people to put them up on pedestals and treat them as noble savages.

      • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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        4 days ago

        Aboriginal Elders have told us we are a reflection of the Country: if the land is sick, so are we. If the land is healthy (or punyu), so are we. Wik First Nations scholar Tyson Yunkaporta says our collective wellbeing can only be sustained through a life of communication with a sentient landscape and all things on it.

        https://theconversation.com/if-the-land-is-sick-so-are-we-australian-first-nations-spirituality-explained-230872

        You wanna go tell Tyson he’s being racist against his own people?

          • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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            4 days ago

            The totem system from the Countries I am from allows for the person to be the knowledge holder of the animal or plant they are given or born into. Within your family group (also known as mob) you are the person that is responsible for its survival and use. For example, if you are given the Kangaroo, people in your mob or Country would come to you to gain permission to hunt the Kangaroo for food or clothing. If you had observed the Kangaroo having high population numbers you could allow them to be hunted to feed families, and on the flip side if population numbers were low, you would not allow this. This totem system was vital to survival of Indigenous people, but also ensured that biodiversity was sustained. It is considered the social responsibility of the community to preserve the environment. By having this relationship and responsibility with a totem creates lifelong physical, spiritual, and emotional connections to the environment. With my personal totem being a Koala, I have dedicated my research interests to understanding more about this animal and advocating for its conservation and preservation. I have focused my early career research on understanding the Koalas diet selection and its relationship to habitat selection.

            https://oxsci.org/conservation-through-the-eyes-of-indigenous-australian-culture/

            Go tell Teresa that her tribe’s environmental management strategies are fake and racist because they make aboriginals look too smart

              • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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                4 days ago

                Are you? You’re the one claiming racism because drag listens to Aboriginal elders. Drag’s got sources for what drag says, and it seems like you don’t. So you’re just making stuff up.

                Besides, the noble savage trope is about thinking indigenous societies were pure an untainted by evil. Aboriginal Australians knew what evil was. They had policies in place within their governments to prevent ecological devastation. That’s not innocence, it’s technology. Aboriginals aren’t savages and drag didn’t say they are. You’re the one denying their advanced environmental policies. Sounds like you’re the one calling them savages.