One of the criticisms that the indigenous people have directed at environmentalism is centred on the concept of wilderness. Wilderness, as a counter point to the domination of nature by instrumental reason, presupposes nature without any trace of of human interaction. This tacitly denies the very existence of Aboriginal people in the landscape and makes them invisible.
In effect the doctrine of terra nullius lives on within wilderness.
The result was that the establishment of national parks (the practical embodiment of wilderness) were established Aborigines were denied their customary inherited rights to use land for hunting gathering, building, rituals and rites.
Or, if the noble savage conception was used instead, them this presupposed idealised harmony of indigenous people in their relation to the land. They practiced the ideal model of conservationism; one that whites should aspire to. The indigenous people had the right dwelling conception and the right caring for the land ethos. Whites should learn from aborigines as noble savages.
Hence the conflict between the Aborigines and the Greens overlay the conflict between the greens and the pioneer settlers who celebrated the conquering and taming of nature as progress.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at January 1, 2004 12:00 AM | TrackBack