Adam O'Neill

Traditional Lands - Traditional Law :

The importance of dingoes in maintaining land health

"What they bait for? Why they want to kill that dingo?

He got dreaming for us that one."

Mona Ramsay, from Pursche 2004

Before the Europeans settled in Australia, the health of the land was preserved by traditional laws in which the dingo was regarded as a sacred totem. Dingoes figure in dreamtime stories from the creation period, stories that were pivotal in fashioning earthborn laws essential for the health of the land and all of its inhabitants. For example, the Muluk Muluk tribe of the Northern Territory traditionally believe that dingoes are the reincarnation of a people that existed from a time before their own. Another example comes from the Yarralin tribe, also of the Northern Territory, who believe that in the dreaming there were no humans, only dingoes, and through a mystical transformation the dreaming made humans from dingoes. The importance of the dingo to Aboriginal people in the Lake Eyre region was documented by a missionary in 1904. The dingo (Kintala Mura) is equivalent to 'god' or 'power'.

…'power' is simply kintala mura [=dingo] who dispenses the blessing. …the 'natives' address their songs or "prayers" for the increase ("blessing") of the dog [species]. … Murala signifies 'belonging to the mura ', or 'of mura origin' [or extraction]. Murala , then, is everything that is beautiful, good, incorruptible, inviolable, pure, clear, and so forth.

[recorded by the missionary Reuther in 1904 and later interpreted by linguist P. Scherer in 1975].

Since European settlement 18 species of Australian mammals have become extinct on the mainland. This represents almost half of all mammal extinctions worldwide in the last 200 years, and many more have declined severely. Current Western management practices have failed at halting this destructive process . Why is this so? Strong scientific evidence is now emerging that dingoes play a critically important role in maintaining ecological balance. Where dingoes are destroyed extinction of other native animals closely follows. According to this science, the science of top predators, it is the dingo that controls foxes, cats and rabbits and preserves native species. Where dingo populations are not healthy, foxes and cats take over as the main predators and cause vast extinctions.

Since European settlement in Australia, Aboriginal societies have suffered enormously, many of these crimes against humanity have since been recognized as such and the process of reconciliation is well under way. However, the question of reimbursement for a culture lost through Western intervention remains complex and encumbered by Western idealistic views. To ‘give back' a homeland to the traditional owners without the rights of management is comparable to providing water in an impenetrable container. Government intervention on Aboriginal land is an issue that is constantly misunderstood and in many instances aboriginal people are manipulated and misled into believing that land management practices imposed by government departments are ecologically beneficial.

Given the deplorable track record of Western society land management in a conservation context, and the lack of scientific evidence to advocate the continuing persecution of dingoes, it is essential that Aboriginal land owners be granted the rights to manage their traditional lands under the theme of traditional law.

“Black fellow law like that hill, it never changes. White fellow law goes this way, that way, all the time changing. Black fellow law different, it never changes. Black fellow law hard like a stone, like that hill. The law is in the ground.” (Rose 2000)

Selected reading

Crooks K.R. and Soulé M.E. (1999). Mesopredator release and avifaunal extinctions in a fragmented system. Nature. 400: 563-566.

Glen A.S. and Dickman C.R. (2005). Complex interactions among mammalian carnivores in Australia, and their implications for wildlife management. Biological Reviews. 80: 387-401.

Glen A.S., Dickman C.R., Soulé M.E. and Mackey B.G. ( in press ). Evaluating the Role of the Dingo as a Trophic Regulator in Australian Ecosystems.

Johnson C.N., Isaac J.L. and Fisher D.O. (2006). Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials in Australia . Proceedings of the Royal Society.

O'Neill A. (2002). Living with the Dingo . Envirobook, Annandale.

Pursche K. (2004). Aboriginal Management and Planning for Country: Respecting and Sharing Traditional Knowledge . Kimberley Land Council. Land and Water Australia.

Rose D.B. (2000). Dingo Makes Us Human: Life and Land in an Australian Aboriginal Culture . Cambridge University Press.