8 A History that Haunts: On Decolonisation, Ecology and Human Rights in Australia

Introduction:

Climate change negatively impacts people and places inequitably. Besides being a scientific and economic problem, climate change is also a moral and ethical problem (Clark & Gunaratnam, 2019; Gardiner, 2006). The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report linked climate change to colonialism, stating that centuries of colonialism have exacerbated the impacts of climate change (IPCC, 2022). Historical and ongoing colonial legacies have significantly increased the vulnerability of people and places to climate change. Those who suffered the greatest dispossession under colonialism and have historically contributed the least to anthropogenic climate change are often impacted most. Therefore, it is critical to consider the histories, legacies, and ongoing implications of colonialism and imperialism when discussing sustainability transitions. To address the myriad social-ecological challenges the world is facing today, sustainable transitions should inherently incorporate fair and equitable ways to distribute benefits and burdens. Central to this is a reckoning with the colonial past and present, the impacts of which underpin contemporary questions of social-ecological vulnerability and resilience. A clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right (UNGA, 2022), and greater solidarity is required to uphold human rights everywhere (UNDP 2022). In this essay, we focus on the British colonisation of Australia to highlight how political-economic logics of imperial expansion and control are intimately tied to extraction and the degradation of social-ecological systems, past and present.

The ecological and social burden of British colonialism in Australia:

Aboriginal Australians are the oldest surviving civilization on Earth outside the continent of Africa, dating back roughly 75,000 years. Before their way of life was violently disrupted, the Aboriginal Australian population comprised approximately 500 unique tribes and 250 distinct languages (Blakemore, 2019). They possessed a rich, spiritual tradition founded on the concept known (in English) as Dreamtime, which encompassed ideas surrounding creation and their deep connection to the land and nature they resided on. in 1770, Australia was deemed “Terra Nullius”, or ‘nobody’s land’ by Captain Cook, in the name of the British Empire. According to the ideology of the coloniser, such land must be conquered, owned, and utilised. Australian Aboriginals did not claim such ownership over the continent, as such a concept was foreign to them. They saw the land as a giver, something belonging to all, which must be protected. Australia, and in particular southeast Australia, is one of the most fire-prone regions on Earth (Hennessy et al., 2005). Aboriginal Australians were cognisant of this, and carefully managed the land through ecologically sustainable fire management practices known as cool burning or fire-stick farming. This created a mosaic-like landscape that prevented large-scale, wild bush fires and maximised biodiversity (Indigenous Knowledge Institute, n.d.). These burning practices had both environmental and cultural significance, without any focus on profit.

According to British colonial logic, natives were not using the land as they could, or should. Because they did not work the soil to its productive limit, choosing instead to living alongside nature, those aboard British fleets considered this land to belong to no one. Consequently, it could be seized by them. The colonisers brought crops and hard-hooved animals, rendering the soil too compacted for native grains to grow. To protect the crops and cattle, British colonisers abruptly halted the sustainable fire practices, leading inevitably to larger and more intense fires. As a result, the ecological landscape shifted significantly. People and nature were transformed into resources for one singular aim: to accumulate capital. Colonial ideology has been proven to rely discursively on many fallacious logics, mobilising colonisers to commit themselves to their actions in the name of imperial expansion and colonial domination. From deeming native people as less-than human, to justifying their actions based upon assumptions and prejudices that perceive see as universal, the colonial mindset always leads to dispossession and dehumanisation (Working with Indigenous Australians, n.d.). As such, the social and ecological implications of the colonial era are inextricably linked.

As the British continued to settle on the continent, native populations resisted. But colonial expansion is always violent, and as a result, the Aboriginal Australian population shrank dramatically from around 600,000 in 1821, to fewer than 300,000 in 1850. If native populations were not directly massacred or exiled, they were subjected to epidemics and poverty. The human atrocity of this part of history is amplified and exacerbated by the fact that the Aboriginals’ connection to the land is inseparable from their existence. To have such a central element of your being torn out violently by colonial oppressors has been a common practice throughout history. The legacies of such extraction and dispossession continued long after the 19th century. As late as the 20th century, children of natives were taken from their homes and forced to conform and to live among European families on the continent, forced to change their names and to abandon their native tongue. There are around 17,000 people who survived this, who have come to be known as the Stolen Generations. These policies ended in the 1970s, when Aboriginal Australians finally gained the right to vote. Due to the ecological drivers and impacts of land-struggles, the consequences of colonialism are deeply rooted in the contemporary struggle against climate change. Researchers have shown that recent catastrophic bushfires in Australia are amplified not by climate change alone (Mariani et al., 2022). Colonial displacement of Australian Aboriginals and suppression of their fire management practices have exacerbated the recent, unprecedentedly large wildfires. Therefore, it is crucial to bring environmental factors to the centre of social theory, while accounting for global imperialism and colonialism (Khoo, forthcoming 2024).

Conclusion:

In 2008, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology for the actions of the state regarding its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (Parliament of Australia, n.d.) While words hold certain power, the efforts to decolonise our minds should not end with apologies. There are numerous efforts in Australia to right the wrongs of the colonial era, and Aboriginal Australians still struggle to regain their dignity within the eyes of the wider populus. They are still discriminated against, and the effects of colonialism still actively perpetuate such racial discrimination. As we have shown, such social inequities are closely tied to significant ecological vulnerabilities for colonised people and places. While we have focused on the experiences of Aboriginal Australian populations within this essay, parallels and similarities can be drawn all around the globe. Decolonisation is an issue we all must face. Coloniality, its legacies, and contemporary manifestations are ever-present in the era of globalisation. Its social and ecological implications must be actively addressed to ensure an equitable and sustainable future.

References

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Clark, N.N. and Gunaratnam, Y. (2019) “Exorbitant Responsibility: Geographies of Climate Justice,” in Zed Books Ltd. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350219236.ch-009.

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Hennessy, K. et al. (2005) “Climate change impacts on fire-weather in south-east Australia.” Canberra, Australia: CSIRO Publishing.

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Mariani, M. et al. (2022). “Disruption of cultural burning promotes shrub encroachment and unprecedented wildfires,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 20(5), pp. 292–300. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2395.

Parliament of Australia (no date), Apology to Australias Indigenous Peoples, Parliament of Australia, Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Art/Icons/Apology_to_Australias_Indigenous_Peoples, Accessed on: 6th June 2023.

UNDP (2022). “New Threats to Human Security in the Anthropocene: Demanding greater solidarity,” Available at: https://hs.hdr.undp.org/.

UNGA (2022). “The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (A/76/L.75),” Available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3982508?ln=en.

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