Discussion of Australia Day generally focuses on whether the date is appropriate, given the disastrous consequences for Indigenous Australians and cultures that followed the arrival of the first fleet.
This question is important because it makes us ask whether we respect Indigenous Australians today and recognise their unique place in Australia.
This year, however, Australia Day invites even deeper reflection on life in Australia and its history and future. The catastrophic fires are the prelude to an age in which the effects of climate change will dominate the way all Australians will experience and live in Australia. It impels us to reflect on the way in which Indigenous Australians and the European settlers have related to the world and on what we might learn from them for our future.
THREAT TO SURVIVAL
This takes us into the world of Pope Francis’ letter on the environment, Laudato si’. He writes with great urgency, recognising the threat to welfare, even survival, of human beings posed by climate change. He also recognises the deep change of attitudes required if as nations and a race we are to meet this threat. We must move beyond the ways of living and thinking that we take for granted. For Pope Francis, that begins in wonder and respect for the world that God has given us.
Reflection on the differences between Indigenous and European ways of seeing the world can offer a new perspective. The Indigenous cultures are communal. In them individuals find meaning through assimilating their received place in society and in country. The growth of the individual is tied to the wellbeing of the community which, in turn, is tied to the care of the earth and its flora and fauna. This world-view and the rituals that embodied it have been carefully passed on from one generation to another and have governed people’s behaviour. Fire was used to prune and promote growth, but not allowed to destroy it. The effect of this care is to conserve the earth which supports human life.
LAND CARE APPROACHES
Western culture as displayed in Australia puts a high value on individual initiative and the amassing of wealth. It is competitive and sees land as something for individuals to take possession of and to exploit, not to preserve and sustain for the good of the community. Central to the public culture is the development of technology to exploit the environment, and of financial systems to underwrite the exploitation. Morality is understood to govern personal and interpersonal behaviour, but not to apply to relationships to land or to social justice.
The catastrophic bushfires, part of the disruption to our lives we must expect with global warming, invite us to ask whether the dominant expansionary and individual culture in Australia has reached a point when it will destroy the world that it exploits. And whether Indigenous cultures may offer, not technological solutions, but a more mature way of imagining our relationship to the natural world. These are rich and pressing thoughts for Australia Day!