LandBack + Aboriginal Australian Land Management
On this episode of The Joy Report, we’re discussing the LandBack movement and why Indigenous wisdom and stewardship techniques are essential to protecting people + the planet.
"The Joy Report" is a podcast dedicated to sharing stories about climate solutions and environmental justice grounded in intersectionality, optimism, and joy. Tune in to hear stories and updates on all things climate, social, and environmental justice explained in a succinct, accessible way by Arielle King (@ariellevking), an environmental justice advocate and attorney passionate about environmental education.
✍🏾Script by @ariellevking + @vampiiirra
📚 Research by @ariellvking + @sydneycheung + @vampiiirra
🗣️ Narration by @ariellevking
🦋Audio Engineering + Music by @awesomenostalgia
🌿Graphic Design by @eileenjawn
🍄Produced by @philthefixer
Episode Transcript
“Welcome to The Joy Report, a podcast dedicated to sharing stories about climate solutions and environmental justice grounded in intersectionality and optimism. Tune in to hear updates on all things climate, social, and environmental justice explained in a succinct and accessible way by me, Arielle King, an environmental justice advocate and attorney passionate about environmental education. The goal of this podcast is to give you the tools you need to stay informed and take action to protect the planet.”
Episode Agenda:
In this episode, we are discussing the LandBack movement and why Indigenous knowledge and technology is essential to protecting people and planet.
Main Topic
“Science polishes the gift of seeing, indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and language”. This beautiful quote from Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a professor of botany and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, encapsulates the theme of this episode.
Mainstream environmental thought has glorified the idea that nature is at its best when untouched by humans.
It’s become abundantly clear that the tools of modern existing environmental management practices are no match for human-induced climate change fueled by greed and overconsumption.
Many Indigenous practices and beliefs are centered around the idea that nature and humans are in a reciprocal relationship that needs to be nurtured.
For example, Native Hawaiian community fishing practices and local-level fisheries are governed by the principle of kuleana (cool-ee-ana), or rights and responsibilities, which encompasses caretaking, sharing, and interacting with nature as family.
Currently, Indigenous people account for less than 5% of the world’s human population. Yet, Indigenous peoples protect 80% of the Earth’s biodiversity.
Studies by The United Nations and others show that pollution, extinction, and other environmental hazards occur at much lower rates on Indigenous managed land. Additionally, ecosystem restoration is occurring all over the world in areas where land has been returned to indigenous care.
Yet, in the United States and other colonial societies, displacing Indigenous people from land and delegitimizing the power of their ancestral knowledge has been public policy.
One of the earliest attacks was an 1823 United States Supreme Court decision that stripped the rights of Indigenous peoples to autonomously manage their land.
These efforts by colonial governments have spurred a countermovement.
LandBack, or land restitution, is a movement with the goal of returning control over land back to its stewards, allowing indigenous peoples to restore their connection to ancestral lands in meaningful ways. LandBack is about Indigenous sovereignty rooted in self-determination; environmental sustainability; and economic justice.
Or in other words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7msyOSrpYsg [9:04-9:58] Quoting the LandBack Manifesto https://landback.org/manifesto/
To meaningfully advocate with indigenous tribes in regaining their sovereignty, necessitates relinquishment of power, active listening, and repairing the harm colonialism has done and continues to inflict on Indigenous people. This encompasses the return of all things that are needed to secure a meaningful indigenous future.
Recently, we have had some tremendous wins related to the LandBack movement.
In September 2021, over 395,000 acres of land from various Australian national parks were returned to the Aboriginal Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, including land in the Daintree Rainforest, one of the oldest rainforests in the world
As of July 2021, 30 years after the initial petition was filed, the Kakataibo tribe in Peru regained over 370,000 acres of land.
Due to the tireless work of indigenous activists and their allies, world governments have also begun integrating traditional practices into their national environmental land management strategies.
Featured Story
Let’s take a journey to Australia.
Thought to be the oldest population of humans living outside of Africa, Aboriginal Australians are split into two groups: Aboriginal, or those who already inhabited Australia when Britain began colonizing the island in 1788, and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who descend from residents of the Torres Strait Islands, a group of islands that is part of modern-day Queensland, Australia.
Pre-colonization Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have actively managed their lands and waters for over 60,000 years. When the British began colonizing Australia in 1788, between 750k and 1.25 million Aboriginal Australians were estimated to have lived there. The British seized this land through violent, and often deadly means. Up to 20k indigenous people lost their lives during that first wave of colonization. Between 1910 and 1970 assimilation policies implemented by the British led to between 10 and 33% of Aboriginal Australian children being forcibly removed from their homes. Referred to as the “stolen generations” these children were put in adoptive families and institutions, they were forbidden from speaking their native languages, and their names were often changed— removing any possibility of reconnection to their family or heritage.
Most Aboriginal Australians did not have full citizenship or voting rights until 1965, and in 2008 the Australian Prime Minister issued a national apology for the country’s actions toward Aboriginal Australians of the Stolen generation as a first step toward rectifying centuries of destruction and genocide.
Today, only about 3% of Australia’s population has Aboriginal heritage, and Australia is the only British Commonwealth in the world to not ratify a treaty with its First Nations peoples. As a result, Aboriginal Australians still struggle to retain their ancient culture and fight for recognition and restitution from the Australian government.
So let's talk about some of the ways Australia’s wildlife and natural lands are benefitting from the knowledge of the aboriginal people.
In late 2019 and into early 2020, devastating wildfires blazed across the southeast region of Australia. This disaster is referred to now as Black Summer, due to its unusual intensity, size and duration, and directly links from the increased temperatures and prolonged droughts that have resulted due to changes in the Earth’s climate.
Climate change has already increased the likelihood of severe fire events like Australia’s 2019-2020 fire season by at least 30 percent.
With the steady increase in severe weather events that contribute to increased wildfires, environmental decision-makers have been seeking new solutions.
Fortunately, solutions for mitigation of the effects of climate-change-induced wildfires already exist. Aboriginal peoples in Australia have used fire management techniques to preserve the landscape for centuries.
https://youtu.be/sFiqU_20s7Q [00:55- 1:10]
That was Robin Dan, a Wanngurr Environmental Ranger in Western Australia.
Adopting indigenous land management techniques is starting to repair the substantial damage done by colonialism.
Intentional burning is most common in the northern part of Australia, and leads to the reintroduction of native grasses, the reduction of scrub to prevent intense bushfires, and the promotion of biodiversity. Small, cooler fires created during the early dry season, from April to July, reduce the number and severity of large, high-intensity dry season fires, which significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. These fires burn slowly with this technique and create breaks in the sprawling forests and grasslands by eliminating the vegetation that would allow them to spread. Not all the area is burnt, with the end result appearing like a mosaic of burnt and unburnt country.
https://youtu.be/OBTZvGJXroM [4:02-4:10; 4:44-5:50]
Now, the entire country is reaping the benefits of this cultural knowledge as emissions reductions are being credited to fire management practices implemented through the Emissions Reduction Fund, which incentivizes Australian businesses to cut the number of greenhouse gases they create and undertake activities that store and sequester carbon.
These projects are restoring the fire management regimes that have been used for tens of thousands of years by indigenous people on this soil and all over the world.
A collection of tribes in Northern California who comprise the cultural fire management council facilitate the practice of cultural burning on the Yurok Reservation and other Ancestral lands and government agencies are beginning to turn to these practices to help reduce wildfires in the state.
A Flinders University study from 2019 reports that the principles of Aboriginal people’s appreciation and deep understanding of the landscape and its features have been overlooked or sidelined in the past - to the detriment of the environment.
https://youtu.be/sFiqU_20s7Q [2:15-2:31]
The fight for indigenous sovereignty is global, and extends to the rights to education, health, employment, and resource re-allocation among other topics.
Topic Related Calls To Action
Here are some ways that you can support the LandBack movement according to indigenous activist, Corinne Grey Cloud:
Find your local indigenous nations
Research and find what actions that Nation already has in place for returning land and sacred sites
As an ally, research and identify where you can donate your time, energy, skills, and money to uplift the work of those already contributing to this movement
Get engaged in local government meetings
Publicly recognize whose land you’re on every chance you get. In the US you can use the website Native-Land.ca or the Whose Land App to aid your land acknowledgements
Check out landback.org to learn more about the history and current actions within this movement
Support indigenous activists and thought leaders who are bringing attention to these important issues
Remember that indigeneity does not have one specific color or set of cultural values. There are first nations peoples all over the world actively seeking rights to land rightfully theirs.
Positive News Stories
Here’s some positive climate news you should also know about:
As of April 1st, a major railway in Japan is now 100% operated on renewable energy, with trains now operating using hydropower, geothermal power, wind power, and solar power https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/major-japan-railway-now-powered-renewable-energy-84334004
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court declared that Indigenous communities must not only be consulted about extractive coal and mining projects on or near their territory, but they must also give their consent to such projects. https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/ecuadors-top-court-rules-for-stronger-land-rights-for-indigenous-communities/
As part of Governor Newsom’s pledge to ensure nearly 1/3 of California’s land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030, the state’s indigenous nations may be given $100 million and preserve their lands. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/18/california-indigenous-tribes-purchase-land
An anonymous donor recently paid $435,000 to purchase then donate part of the Ashby Community Garden in Southwest Berkeley to the indigenous women-run Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. https://www.berkeleyside.org/2022/04/20/ashby-community-garden-sogorea-te-land-trust
And to all the New Yorkers out listening, the state’s Climate Action Council has released a draft Climate Plan. From now until June 10th New Yorkers have the opportunity to weigh in on a number of climate-related issues, including indigenous sovereignty. https://climate.ny.gov/Our-Climate-Act/Draft-Scoping-Plan
IE + Community Updates
And in the world of Intersectional Environmentalist:
The first resource in our Digital Toolkit Series is now live! Through this collection of educational resources, IE fellows will delve into a myriad of topics exploring the intersections of various identities, histories, and lived experiences.
This first toolkit of the collection is, “I am not your savior: A digital toolkit on dismantling the Black Woman Savior Trope”. Check out the toolkit on our website: intersectionalenvironmentalist.com under the resources tab where you can view on the page or download the PDF, and you can watch the IG live conversation with myself and the toolkit’s main researcher and writer, IE fellow Thea Gay at intersectional environmentalist.
Closing Statement
As always, remember, fighting the climate crisis is a marathon, not a sprint. We need everyone to get involved in a way that feels right for them, now more than ever.
Tune in next episode where we’ll discuss the resurgence of the labor rights movement.
I’m your host, Arielle King, and thank you for listening to this episode of The Joy Report
