What can we Learn about Nature Connection from Indigenous Australian Cultures?
28th January 2023
This is the third in a series of articles looking at what we can learn about connection with nature and nature connection practices from Indigenous peoples that started by looking at Native American and First Nation Cultures and continued by looking at What we can learn about Nature Connection from the Māori.
There is a component of Forest Bathing practice, especially in North America, Australia and New Zealand, that promotes recognition of ancestral lands, acknowledges historical wrongdoings, and recognises that the indigenous people had a different relationship with nature that made them better custodians of the land and set examples that we would be wise to learn from. Many Forest Bathing Guides and Forest Therapists in once Colonial countries start and introduce their guiding with a statement such as, “I acknowledge that we are standing upon the traditional lands of the Cherokee (USA) / the Sioux (USA) / the Cree (mainly Canada) / the Blackfoot (mainly Canada) / the Te Arawa (New Zealand) / The Wiradjuri Nation (Australia). I would like to thank them for their stewardship of the land.”
Many Forest Bathing and Nature Connection Guides also feel that this connection to nature that many indigenous people have is increasingly been lost in modern Western society. Forest Bathing is seen as a salutogenic approach (an approach to health promotion that focuses on factors that support good health and wellbeing) that can be beneficial for mental and emotional health as well as physical wellbeing. Studies have shown that people with a high level of nature-connectedness are more likely to act in environmentally-friendly ways as well as enjoying better mental health. Many people also believe that there has been a decrease in perceptions of connection with nature, particularly over the last 30 to 40 years and that this has contributed to the increase in the global prevalence of mental ill-health.
Disclaimer – Each of the Indigenous Peoples discussed here will have their own customs, practices, beliefs, traditions and values. They may represent a geographically and culturally diverse group of people and this will affect the way that they live and lived in different landscapes.
I recognise that they are far from one homogenous group and I accept that some generalisations may be made that apply to the majority of them, but accept that they may not apply to all of them, and I will exercise caution and attribute particular beliefs to particular tribes and peoples where possible.
This article will also try, where possible, to restrict itself to beliefs and customs that there is evidence that they still apply today, rather than risk confusing them with those that were only evident in Colonial times when both the native people and the settlers may have had different beliefs and values to those that are held now.
I also do not speak with the cultural experience of an indigenous person so lack the cultural context within which those with lived experience may talk and may lack this innate understanding for which I apologise in advance.
Indigenous Australians’ Attitudes to Nature
According to a journal article by Stefan Lehmen “Aboriginal Australians are living proof of how we can take a different approach to nature. They represent over 50,000 years of uninterrupted living culture, based on the ‘touching the Earth lightly’ concept, meaning that you only take from nature what you really need at that particular moment. Yet over the last 35,000 years [we in the West] we have gradually changed our relationship with nature.”
The phrase Aboriginal Australians is the term commonly used to describe the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. They are ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, but are often grouped with the Aboriginal Australians as ‘Indigenous Australians’.
Indigenous Australians have had a long-standing relationship with the land and everything that exists on the land, that stretches far back into history and is based on respect, knowledge, and harmony. Aboriginal and Indigenous cultures have always understood that the land provides all of their necessary resources, and so these resources must be stewarded carefully in order to ensure that these supplies will not diminish. From an early age, Indigenous Australian cultures teach respect for their environment and to take only what is needed from its resources, ensuring that no resources are wasted or over-harvested. This traditional approach of sustainability has enabled Indigenous cultures to last for centuries.
Connection with the Land
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have an ancient and spiritual connection with the land, its environment, animals, and all living things. According to their traditional lore, the land, air, water, trees, plants, rocks, animals and weather are all interconnected and essential to their well-being. This spiritual bond means that they view the environment as an extension of themselves and believe that they have a responsibility to care for it. They understand the important balance between humans and nature and the need to live in harmony with their surroundings, looking after the land, conserving resources and understanding the seasonal cycle of plants and animals.
The Concept of ‘Country’
These relationships are demonstrated in the way they care for ‘Country’ – their ancestral lands – its waters, plants, heritage sites and sacred places. They understand the important balance between humans and nature as they live in harmony with their surroundings by looking after the land, and understanding the seasonal cycle of plants and animals. This relationship also encompasses how to use and conserve natural resources in order to provide shelter, tools, medicine and more.
In a similar way to how Forest Bathing and Nature Connection guides acknowledge the historic stewards of the land as described earlier, it is noted that even in urban areas of Australia, aboriginal people who are speaking to an audience outside of their ‘Country’ it is customary for them to acknowledge the traditional overseers of that area.
Cultural Identity and Diet
For Indigenous Australians, the ability to interact with nature is integral to their culture and identity. Historically, Aboriginal people have earned a reputation as being excellent hunters and gatherers, having the knowledge and understanding of the land’s resources in order to take only what is needed from it. Men typically hunted for larger animals, such as kangaroos, emus and other large birds, and reptiles; while women and children collected smaller animals along with fruits, honey, insects and plants. This sustainable relationship with nature resulted in a rich and varied diet that changed according to the local climate and season.
Bush Medicine
The long-standing relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a with nature is reflected in their extensive use of traditional bush medicines. Such medicines were drawn from the natural resources of their environment such as wild herbs, bark, sap from trees, soil, animal products and leaves. Different tribes use different medicines depending on their availability in their local environment and these traditional remedies are often amended according to the season. Medicinal knowledge has been passed down through generations to create ointments and remedies for ailments such as snake bites, jellyfish stings, headaches and eye infections.
Wider Environmental Practices
This deep and harmonious relationship with nature extends to environmental management practices, such as with fire management, where small fires are carefully lit to create a healthy balance of trees and shrubs, preventing them growing too densely, encouraging new growth to attract herbivores such as kangaroos and wallabies, and reducing the risk of major wildfires caused by lightning strikes. Another example is the way in which Indigenous cultures have historically managed the resources available to them from the mangrove systems and habitats. These unique tree or shrub ecosystems, found in coastal areas, provide a wealth of resources like clams, mud crabs, fish and medicinal plants, and timber for building canoes, spears and boomerangs. For thousands of years these people used mangroves responsibly by only harvesting during the crab season and allowing the area to recover in between. Today, due to human destruction, the mangrove habitats are under threat but the Australian government is working together with Indigenous groups to protect these environments. In this way traditional sustainable practices still remain important to Indigenous cultures as they are passed down between generations and continue to be used beneficially today.
Totems
Indigenous and Aboriginal Australian cultures include the concept of ‘totems’ that have the additional benefit of acting as another way to ensure sustainability. A totem is a symbol taken from nature, such as a plant or animal, that is inherited by members of a tribe as their spiritual emblem. A person with a kangaroo as a totem for example, would not hunt kangaroos, so at any given time, there will be a proportion of the population that that will not be hunting them, reducing the potential that any totemic animal will be over-exploited. The popularity of totem animals is often directly proportional to how common they are in nature.In the event that over-use of any specific resource is identified, an alternative source of food is found until the population has recovered sufficiently.
In this way Aboriginal and Indigenous have used, and continue to use a combination of practical skills, totemic restrictions - system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant - and other spiritual beliefs to ensure sustainable use of resources.
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