Ethics, Sustainability and Culture - Aboriginal People of Australia

Ethics, Sustainability
and
Culture

1
Question 1
Land is of great significance to the aboriginal people of Australia. The living environment
goes beyond the physical element and it is fundamental to their identity. They form
interdependent relationships among an individual and their ancestral lands and seas. This
kind of reciprocal relationship created among the land and individual is sustained by the
cultural knowledge and environment (Kingsley, Townsend, Henderson-Wilson & Bolam,
2013). They are also the part of many economic organisations and most of them are related to
the lands. They have strongly followed their relationship with the land even after being a part
of the economic organisations. They understand their lands to be sacred as well as a living
person hence giving the resources of the country as their god.
These Indigenous Australians are known for adopting environmentally sustainable practices.
For them environment sustainable practice is not a new term. They believe in sustainable
productivity. This can be understood in terms of the fact that they still have faith in their
traditional practices of farming and usually uses traditional and environmental knowledge.
Various indigenous people have started to understand the extent and effects of traditional
aboriginal land management practices and hence they have started to regain authority and
social licence to re-implement cool burns as a part of the cultural reconnection to the nation,
reinvigoration of social and cultural relationship of the communities (Russell-Smith, Cook,
Cooke, Edwards, Lendrum, Meyer & Whitehead, 2013). This is acting as an effort to heal the
environmental degradation and sick country in different parts of the Australia. Practicing this,
there are regular cool burns that are witnessed in different regions of the nation especially the
ones that have not been burnt for decades. They are using traditional approach along with
scientific approach to improve the utilisation of land resources. Inclusive and respectful
approach to sustaining the socio-ecological systems is generally practiced by them.
Question 2
Different practices and policies used by the government acted as a barrier to the development
of the Aboriginal people. Practices such as dispossession by the government and the colonial
governments have taken lands from the aboriginal people. Since these people were highly
dependent on their lands for their economic activities hence dispossession let them remain
with no ancestral properties. On the other hand the practices such as the Stolen Generation
deprived children of Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal from their families by
the state and federal government agencies and the church under act of their respective