Australian Conservation: Relationships to Land and First Nations Peoples ...

• Main Author: Deprez, Elias
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Australian National University 2023
• Subjects: conservation; wilderness; nature; environment; environmental conservation; nature conservation; land management; environmental crisis; climate change; Indigenous; First Nations; First Nations people; Aboriginal; Australia; non-government organisations; non-government organizations; NGOs; colonisation; colonization; decolonising; decolonizing; partnerships; Indigenous knowledge; human-nature
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/a03b-8e56; https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/313366

Australian conservation has seen a proliferation of non-government actors in recent decades, creating an incredibly diverse sector. This thesis seeks to understand how non-government conservation organisations think about the land they work on and the values they attribute to nature. Conservation has historically been informed by a human-nature dichotomy, and protected areas have been linked to the concept of wilderness. This is inherently problematic because it ideologically and physically removes people, including First Nations people, from the land. This thesis provides a recent update to this account by analysing the ways conservation organisations conceive of their relationships to land. This is also analysed in relation to the increasing prevalence of their partnerships with First Nations land and sea management organisations. How do conservation organisations’ ideas about land influence their relationships with First Nations peoples? This thesis uses a combination of literature review, grey literature ...