Antinuclear

Aboriginal culture may yet save Australia for European pastoralists, Aborigines and environmentalists

Honour invasion warriors’, Canberra Times, BY BREANNA TUCKER, 04 Nov, 2011  “…………..Professor Flannery pointed out that Australia would do well to take lessons from its elders.

He said technology had made the world smaller, and communication and building strong links had become the key to successful business. But far from being covered in dust in the history books, Aboriginal people had pioneered the structure in which such relationships needed to be build.

”Aborigines were the only people who, without the assistance of any transport, forged a community of knowledge and interconnectedness that spanned an entire continent,” Professor Flannery said. ”If you look at the records, people from the Kimberley knew the names of people living in the Great Australian Bight.

”They did not trade in physical goods, they traded in intellectual property, in songs and knowledge. The maintenance of that connectedness is an echo of the world we’re now moving into because knowledge is everything in the modern world.”

Professor Flannery ended by reflecting on Australian politics, in which he said Aboriginal people and Australians were perhaps more aligned than they realised. Where the nation was once divided between European pastoralists, Aborigines and environmentalists, the interests of all three groups were now merging.

”There is a thirst out there for a new sort of partnership, reflecting a new reality and that reality is that Europeans on the land, Aboriginal people and environmentalists now have a very strong common thread.

”But unless we acknowledge and really come to terms with our past, we won’t be able to fully take the benefits of the diverse place Australia has become.” http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/honour-invasion-warriors/2346731.aspx

November 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL