National Sorry Day (May 26) and National Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3) offer an opportunity to reflect on our stewardship of the land, says Anglican EcoCare member Ron Hacker.
As a retired agricultural scientist, with more than 45 years’ experience in land management, Mr Hacker is passionate about ecology.
By acknowledging the relationship First Nations people have with the land, he says we can learn better practices of caring for it well into the future.
“As the Diocese of Newcastle seeks to implement our Fifth Mark of Mission, we acknowledge the stewardship exercised by Indigenous people of the land and water resources of this country,” Mr Hacker says.
“This stewardship was based on a relationship to land.
“Indigenous people did not seek to own the land but rather were owned by it, with clear responsibilities for its care.
“Europeans found in Australia a continent that was not a pristine wilderness, but a landscape sculptured by management skills honed over millennia.”
Mr Hacker adds explorers’ journals and early settler letters testify that a land well-cared for, often likened to a ‘gentleman’s park’, had been established and maintained by Aboriginal burning practices.
“Aboriginal knowledge of landscape and the seasonal availability of food resources meant that movements of people were not nomadic, as often assumed, but purposeful, driven by in-depth knowledge of country,” he says.
“We have much to learn from First Nations people as we strive to repair the ecological damage caused by the introduction of European management systems into a new environment and again develop management skills that permit sustainable habitation and production across this vast land.”
Anglicans have long been concerned about environmental issues and its impact on the people and the planet. The church has made a commitment to protect and conserve the environment and life on our beautiful planet.
To learn more about Newcastle Anglican EcoCare click here.
