Let's now consider landuse by Aboriginal Australians. Present Aboriginal landuse is the consequence of Land Rights legislation initiated under the Whitlam government. The objective of this legislation was to redress a great social ill, the dispossession of the Aboriginal communities. The spiritual attachment to land of the Aboriginal people is a central part of their culture. For those culturally intact Aboriginal communities, who lived almost entirely in the Outback, the return of ownership and the control of land was a long and hard fought objective.

Having gained tenure or ownership to land, most but not all of which was previously under Pastoral landuse, Aboriginal communities changed the way in which the land was used. Some Aboriginal communities have maintained Pastoral landuse, others have not. Other communities have continued with or reimposed a hunter-gatherer landuse. This is the only landuse that is relevant to this Chapter.

I define Aboriginal landuse culturally and not racially. That is, it is defined by the use and not the people. It is a nomadic hunter-gathering landuse. It is a use that harvests only the flora and fauna and the water resources.

This landuse is still given the adjective, "traditional", that is quite misleading. The traditional way of life refers more closely to the associated cultural and spiritual activities and values rather than to the landuse.

Aboriginal people are no longer traditional in several key aspects of their landuse. They have readily and widely adopted motorised transport, and are therefore far more mobile than in Traditional times. Also they use modern hunting technology including rifles and radios. An Aboriginal hunter with 4WD and high powered rifle is no different in his impact on the fauna than a non-Aboriginal hunter.

Today traditional hunting and gathering is largely a myth. It is a myth some of us want to believe in, and if possible experience before it becomes extinct. But it is a myth. Myth has no place in contemporary debate about the conservation and preservation of landcover.

An extension of this myth is that any Non-Aboriginal landuse is in some way degrading, whereas Aboriginal landuse cannot be. That is, modern Australians foul all they touch, in contrast to Aboriginal Australians who live in harmony with the Biosphere.

I strongly reject this belief. It is a form of self-flagellation that may make its proponents feel better, but certainly does not help the long term future of the land.

I hasten to add that this is belief is not unique to Australian society and public debate. The same belief is widespread in western society and can be encountered within the Conservation Movement. It began at least two centuries ago with the ideal of 'The Noble Savage'. The great contrast between Tribal Societies and the profligate and degenerate civilisation of Europe was lamented. The most modern version I have heard has the name 'The Wisdom of the Elders'.

My point is that this is an uncritical view. It is one based on emotions rather than observations. The blind acceptance of this view may ultimately destroy, or at least severely damage, that which we wish to keep, the land. The land is more important than mythology and our inadequacies. I apply the same ethical values to Aboriginal landuse as I do to Agricultural or Pastoral landuse. The land is more important than its (temporary) users.