Meaning of land to Aboriginal people

White and black views about land

What does land mean to non-Indigenous people and land owners? For them land is [1]

• a commodity to be bought and sold,
• an asset to make profit from,
• a means to make a living off it,
• simply 'home'.

For Aboriginal people the health of land and water is central to their culture. Land...

• is also their 'home',
• is their mother
• is steeped in their culture
• gives them the responsibility to care for it.

Land sustains Aboriginal lives in every aspect, spiritually, physically, socially and culturally.

The land is my backbone... I only stand straight, happy, proud and not ashamed about my colour because I still have land... I think of land as the history of my nation.—Galarrwuy Yunipingu [1]

In white society, a person's home is a structure made of bricks or timber, but to our people our home was the land that we hunted and gathered on and held ceremony and gatherings. —Nala Mansell-McKenna, Youth Worker, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre [2]

Aboriginal law and life originates in and is governed by the land. The connection to land gives Aboriginal people their identity and a sense of belonging.

Do Aboriginal people oppose land development?

With their intimate connection to land Aboriginal people could be perceived as strongly opposed to any land development.

The opposite is true. A national survey of Aboriginal land owners found in 2007 that although custodial responsibilities and land care were their first priority, nearly all land owners strongly supported economic development [11].

Their goal is ultimately self-sustainability, but a lack of financial support and the ability to access it prevent many to reach this goal.

Land management improves health

Aboriginal people can only care for their land when they also care for their culture. Culture is the key to care for the land, caring for the land strengthens their culture and well-being. That is why so many Aboriginal people get sick when they are removed from their traditional land (Stolen Generations). When they participate in both customary and contemporary land and sea management practices Aboriginal people are much healthier. The opposite also holds true: When Aboriginal people are removed from their homeland the landscape suffers too [1].

Research and studies increasingly confirm the strong link between Aboriginal health and land management. "Aboriginal people commonly say that their health and well-being are positively impacted by a strong relationship with their traditional lands and culture, and there is increasing scientific evidence that this is the case," says Dr Joselyn Davies of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences [4]

"The stress load on Aboriginal people is reduced when they are empowered through caring for their own lands." Davies proposes four principles for Aboriginal land management that help improve health for the people involved [4]:

• Aboriginal land management and governance recognises and respects Aboriginal custom and tradition, and is adaptive.
• Learning is embraced as a life-long process.
• Relationships are recognised as very important.
• Partnerships give priority to doing things that all parties agree are important.

"These principles are based on long observation and many people's experiences of what works," observes Dr Davies.

Caring for the land

Aboriginal people are caring for their land but their methods today vary greatly from those of the past.

Traditional care

Before the invasion Aboriginal people created a complex system of land management. There was no 'pristine wilderness', rather a patchwork of burnt and re-grown areas.

In using fire Aboriginal people could plan and predict plant growth and with it attract animals for hunting. They converted the land to grasslands for the "maintenance" of animals, plants and fresh drinking water, according to Bill Gammage's ward-winning book The Biggest Estate on Earth.

Gammage explains that Aboriginal people not only thought of kangaroos when laying out their burn patterns, but also of possums, wombats, birds, insects, reptiles and plants. "Once you have started to lay out country to suit a species, you are on the way to an extraordinarily complex arrangement of the land, which you must maintain very carefully, and over many generations," he says.

Watch Bill Gammage discuss how Aboriginal people managed country, dispelling the myth that they just roamed around doing nothing:

Modern care

Caring for the land does not necessarily mean only the traditional way. Modern carers for land, such as rangers, can both continue traditional traditions (deep knowledge about country passed on from generation to generation), as well as apply modern technologies and innovative land management practices.

Traditional owners often work in partnership with government departments and other non-Aboriginal organisations to conserve and care for land.

In such mutual relationships traditional owners [6,5,4,13]

• protect cultural sites, stories and songlines,
• record sites of resource use and special features,
• recognise important cultural areas,
• create seasonal harvest calendars,
• survey catchments,
• record (new) plants,
• remove seeds and weeds,
• teach government departments and tourists about their connection with the land, the seasons and bush foods,
• perform cultural or customary activities,
• take Aboriginal children out on country so they can learn from their elders,
• help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
• return threatened species to their native habitat,
• contribute to prevent bush fires,
• help with sustainable water management.

We come from a people who cherished the land and cared for it better than it will ever be cared for again. —Julie Kelly, NSW [7]

Joint [land] management is a win-win situation that provides employment, training, a better environment and a bit of hope. —Rick Hope, Senior Ranger, Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve, NT [5]

Fact: In 2012, Aboriginal people managed 20% of Australia's land [13].

Fact: More than 3 million adult kangaroos and 1 million joeys are "harvested" each year in Australia for human and pet consumption. This is considered the "largest commercial kill of terrestrial wildlife on Earth" [8]. For many Aboriginal tribes kangaroos are a sacred animal.

Spiritual connections

Their spiritual and cultural connection to the land obliges Aboriginal people to look after cultural sites which are 'living museums' of their ancestors and include [7]

• Dreaming sites,
• archaeological sites,
• water holes,
• burial grounds.

Ceremonial activities help them renew or rebuild their spiritual connection to the land and the sacred sites they look after.

Today access to traditional lands can be gained when native title is recognised, but gaining this title is a lengthy, costly and complex process.

Non-Indigenous people have problems understanding the close relationship with land. When Aboriginal people try to educate about what the land means to them they often are "hit with this hurtful phrase 'the land doesn't belong to you Aboriginal people, it belongs to all of us." It is one of the "most hurtful comments" that they have to endure. [4]

"Aboriginal cultural heritage places are an essential part of our library," explains Tasmanian Aboriginal activist Jim Everett. "[They hold] not only material evidence of our ancestors' lifestyles, influenced by ice ages, isolation, climate changes and eventually colonisation, but also a spiritual connection to country and the identity of place and spiritual belonging." [9]

"Destruction is like ripping pages from our library books, it is like cutting the hearts of our people, cutting our identity and our cultural philosophy that sustains our spiritual connectedness to country."

Many Aboriginal people's connection to the land has been severed during the time of the Stolen Generations. They have lost their traditional connection. Aboriginal author and academic Stephen Hagan estimates that about 70% of the people he has spoken to do not have "the faintest idea" of their connection to country [12].

It's like the love for your mum and dad.—Natasha Neidje, grand-daughter of Bill Neidje, about the love for the land, Kakadu National Park

If you belong there your country will find a way to call you back. Country needs to be remembered, needs to be listened to, needs to know that we can still speak its language. —Aboriginal elder in TV series Double Trouble

Before Bed

Most nights before bed
I retreat outside
to savour the beauty
that soothes my mind.

Stars stain the sky
scattered all around
I peer into the darkness
observing every sound.

The call of an owl
the distant croak of a frog
the squeaking of a bandicoot
as it scurries past a log.

The symphony of insects
whose song fills the air
the whisper of a westerly
that flows through my hair.

A mother and her joey
briskly bound away
these sounds hold more meaning
than what words can ever say.

Moonshine protrudes
the sparse shifting cloud
a river of lilac
streams to the ground.

I bathe in this brilliance
a smile on my face
grateful to the spirits
for maintaining this place.

By Jonathan Hill, Old Erowal Bay, NSW [10]. Read more Aboriginal poems.

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] 'Caring for culture, caring for country', NIT 10/7/2008 p.16 [2] 'Tassie Heritage claim ignored', readers letter, Koori Mail 490 p.24 [3] 'Rich-in-culture traditional owner turns down millions', Koori Mail 483 p.9 [4] 'Land is linked to well-being', Koori Mail 496 p.35 [5] 'Caring for their country', Koori Mail 485 p.27 [6] 'Coastline protected', Koori Mail 471 p.37 [7] 'A word that identifies us', readers letter, Koori Mail 488 p.25 [8] 'Don't cull roos, says Elder', Koori Mail 492 p.41 [9] 'Tassie bypass fight goes on', Koori Mail 484 p.7 [10] 'Before Bed', Koori Mail 490 p.24 [11] 'On our terms', Koori Mail 403 p.5 [12] 'Tell your story', Koori Mail 400 p.21 [13] 'Caring for country', Koori Mail 519 p.64