Our people lived in harmony with this land
for thousands and thousands of years.
Since the 1700s,
British colonists arrived on ships with the intent of conquering the continent
and eventually taking almost every bit of it for themselves.
We used to protect the land, taking only what we needed to survive
and giving back in every way that we could.
Generations later, the air, water, and land are now polluted.
The soil struggles to grow crops, and the oceans have been overfished.
It is more important today than ever…
…that we continue to struggle to have a voice in our own land,
to preserve our culture and our Mother Earth.
This is the story of some of the Aboriginal people…
…of Australia.
Evidence of Aboriginal habitation of Australia dates back over 60,000 years,
before the Colonial discovery, settlement, and hostile takeover of the land.
Like many nations around the world,
it has a brutal and bloody history of colonization.
As we go further into our exploration of this beautiful country,
we need to recognize the original people of the continent,
and how they live to protect and preserve the land.
-Whoa-ho-ho-ho!
Modern society can learn from the respect they had for the delicate balance
between humans and the rest of the planet.
-Cheers. -That's what this episode is about.
Recognizing the original landowners,
learning as much as we can from their culture,
and seeing how those methods still apply toward protecting the Earth today.
Pretty cool, man. Feel like I'm gonna go back in time.
At the University of Melbourne, we continue to learn more
about Australian history during our sit-down with author Bruce Pascoe.
Bruce's controversial book Dark Emu challenges the widely held belief
that original people of Australia were nomadic hunters and gatherers.
Bruce argues that Aboriginals were actually conservation savvy
and sophisticated farmers.
His ideas are way beyond theories.
His premise is drawn from the journals and records
of the original colonists and explorers.
And Bruce feels, as the First People of the nation,
Aboriginals should be given proper respect
for their contributions to society and the land.
For us, it's an honor to sit down and talk with him.
-This is great. -Yeah.
It's a certain pleasure that we get to talk with you and to learn.
-Mm. -I think that's the key.
Um, Australia is a colonial country, it still is,
and, um, misunderstood as a result of that.
We can learn a lot more about the country
by looking at how Aboriginal people managed it.
So much of what you've been researching and talking about and sharing
is getting back to move forward, right?
Yeah. We think we've got the oldest village on Earth here.
So that means that Aboriginal people had chosen to live together
in built houses, maybe 50, 60,000 years ago.
So that's tens of thousands of years before they thought anyone else was…
Yeah. It's older than Turkey, older than Israel.
What was it about the Aboriginal people that stood the test of time for so long?
The basis of Aboriginal government was that we should be more modest.
We should see ourselves as one of the animals.
That's why Aboriginal people have animal totems, tree totems, plant totems,
because we see ourselves as just creatures.
It's the crazy idea of superiority and then the taking.
We need to have this conversation with each other and say,
"Am I gonna be there in another 20,000 years?"
"Or are we gonna kill ourselves?"
Looking after the Earth is like decent housekeeping,
and, and really good economic sense.
Everything we do has to make sure she's all right.
Then we'll be all right.
Yeah.
There are about 500 different Aboriginal Nations throughout Australia.
Today, they make up only around 2.4% of the total population.
We're gonna be visiting just a few of these nations, and our first stop is here.
Cooya Beach is a beautiful and diverse coastal area of Queensland
with three unique ecosystems.
Beach, mangroves, and coastal reef.
They're all connected together by mudflats and tidal lagoons.
We're here to spend the day with representatives of the Indigenous group
of this area, the Kuku Yalanji people.
In this episode, I will hand over most of the storytelling duties
to the Aboriginal representatives as they appear,
so we can hear from them in their own words.
This is Linc Walker.
My name is Linc Walker.
My brother and I run Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours.
Our company is 100% Aboriginal owned and operated.
Visitors get full cultural immersion.
As custodians of our traditional land,
it's our responsibility to continue to pass on the cultural knowledge
that we've accumulated over the thousands of years through our families.
-Welcome to Cooya Beach, guys. -Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Stoked to be here.
You're in Kuku Yalanji country. We speak Kuku Yalanji language here.
Out here, this place is Cooya Cooya.
It means fishing. We catch all sorts of fish here.
This is just some of the stuff from out here.
Crocodiles, swordfish, saw sharks, turtles…
-That's from a swordfish? -Yeah. See the different ones?
What about that? That's from a swordfish?
That's a swordfish.
-And that's your saw. -This is a sawfish.
Used to put handles on each end and chop down trees with 'em.
You are doing mostly traditional fishing out here?
Yeah, spearfishing, a lot of selective hunting, gathering,
picking up what we need, netting, trapping, all sorts.
So how old were you when you started to learn fishing techniques?
We were really small. We learned all this when we were with our grandparents
and Mom and Dad, and uncles and aunties. Everyone's got their own tricks.
A lot of our elders can't walk anymore, so we set this up
so that we could keep hunting and feeding them good stuff every day.
A lot of our families couldn't dodge the diabetes.
You would've heard about generations
locked up on missions where people couldn't get off.
They were fed sugar, flour, tobacco, and tea.
So all of my grandmother's generation had diabetes. Once they got off the mission,
they didn't have to eat that stuff anymore.
They're back to hunting and gathering. Now our generation has made sure
that we build this into the lifestyle and keep our people healthy from now on.
That's awesome, man.
This cultural tourism stuff that we do
is one of the ways that we highlight our special culture
and keep our families' heads up and moving into the future
and fixing all that bad stuff from the past.
Come on down. We'll go through the front, do spear practice, get you started off.
We're gonna take Darin and Zac down to the beach,
and we'll teach them how to handle our spears safely.
The family's been here for 20,000 years. We used to live way out at sea,
but the water pushed us back. Now we're coming back down the mountain.
But it's all the same families. Those stories are still intact.
All the landmarks are here that tie us to those stories.
Wow.
I'll get you to come up and pick out a spear.
Have a feel. Find something not too heavy, not too light.
Something you're comfortable with. We'll have a practice, then we'll…
You can change if you need to.
-This feels great. -Feels good? Just watch the guy behind ya.
Oops. At least it wasn't the pointy end.
First rule. When you carry your spears today,
straight up and down on your shoulder.
-That way we don't stab each other. -Just wanted to look at the tip.
Okay, so one toe on the line.
Finger on the end when you throw up here. Pointer finger.
So point your feet at the target as well.
When you're ready, all your weight on that back leg.
Lean back, all your weight on that back leg.
You can lift your front leg up, take a step, and push with the finger.
Wow!
-All right, practice round. That's it. -Whoof! I got it on the bounce.
Easy. Come on down. We'll go again.
Sweet.
-Cheers for that. -No worries.
Might be a bit easy for you. I'll move it down a bit.
You're going that far away? In the water, you can spot him?
Yeah, the fish'll hear you coming and take off. You've gotta chase after them.
Remember, fish have a scale, guys. So you hit it hard.
No excuses after this one.
Nearly. That's all right. That float in the water.
-Ooh! There you go. All right. -Nice shot.
You've seen one of these before, guys?
-Your woomera. -No.
That's now your finger.
Oh, so you get extra leverage.
Weapon upgrade.
Once they can use the finger on the spear, then we upgrade them
to using the woomera, which is an extension of your arm
to give you more power when fishing.
-There you go. Good power. -Nice.
It's very scary when you get out there
and people are throwing spears left, right, and center, so…
We make sure that we definitely have to do the safety-handling spear stuff first…
That's him.
…before we get people to come and do a traditional hunt.
All right, guys. That's all the help we can give you. You ready?
Pretty ready.
Me and Darin will cruise along the beach and do medicines and grab all the food.
And you two will head out and do a hunt,
see if you can bring us back some fish and crab and stuff.
-All right. -Competition's on.
-I'll take care of this. -You got it?
-Go handle the veggies. -All right.
I'm taking Zac out with me. We're gonna chase a couple of mud crabs
and see what we can catch.
Mostly crab are gonna look like those holes.
They'll move when we get close. They'll see us and start to run.
These are stingray holes where stingrays have been feeding.
If a shellfish moves in the mud, it makes electrical current.
Stingray knows where it is. He'll sit on it, kick to it, crush it, and eat it.
-See all this, all over the beach? -Yeah.
So that's one of the most useful medicines here. Plenty of it.
-That's the fruit off it. -Oh wow.
And you see this green and white? The white is ready.
The little white berries are the fruit of the beach lettuce plant.
…if you have eye infections or if you get sand in your eye,
you get the ripe ones, make sure it's ripe, and you just squeeze.
We use the salty water inside like an antiseptic.
And that's your eye wash or your eye drops. Very simple.
Wow, that's… It's…
You can feel… It's not stinging at all, but just a little bit of cleansing.
Bit of a wash. Squeeze it on…
You can use it as a skin wash. It's gentle. It's not sticky.
-It dries… clean. -Amazing.
It's super helpful when you're running around.
-Yeah, with sticky hands. -Yeah.
This fella here, this is a little hermit crab.
-That's a kuyulin or mud whelk. -A big hermit crab.
Yeah. These guys here, the best bait on the beach.
If you're fishing beaches or riverbanks, collect a heap of hermit crabs.
Most Aboriginal people leave rocks where there's a good fishing spot,
so they find a flat rock, broke, and another round rock, broken shells.
-To signal to people that-- -That's the place to fish.
And so can you eat the lettuce part as well?
Nah, not really edible.
-But this is the bandage wrap. So-- -Oh, bandage wrap.
…if you have a skin burn or a skin ulcer. Feel that. Nice and cool.
When we come back from a big walk, dip 'em in water under their tree--
-That's amazing. -Lay on it. Nice and cool.
Sunburn, if you're burnt up. Perfect.
-And you can see the morning glory vines. -Morning glory, wow.
Now this one have a yellow flower.
We also have one on the ground that has a purple flower.
We call them stingray vines.
If you walk out here, you get spiked by a stingray,
or you cut your foot on the reef, we… That's a stronger antiseptic.
We bash it up, hot water, soak it, and then you can soak your feet in there.
Has a numbing effect, so you can pull the bits and pieces out.
All across the land, everywhere you go,
there's a special connection between the plants and the animals.
Us, as the people, we have to find these special connections.
That's the Aboriginal way.
-We'll let Zac and Brandon get hurt today. -We got the medicine for 'em.
This is a moon shell.
When it's a new moon, it goes dark. A full moon, it turns white.
The color changes color with the moon cycle.
-That's why they call it a moon shell. -Look at him there, just chillin'.
The whole idea with those guys,
if you have a big overcast day, you want to go hunting,
don't know what the tide's gonna be like, you look for that shell.
If these are dark like that, it's gonna be a good tide.
So you take a lot of signals from what the animals are doing.
Most of your plants will tell you or the animals will.
Fascinating. That's pretty cool. I feel like I'm gonna go back in time.
This is all we did when we were kids. That's all we wanted to do.
-Way better than video games. -Yeah.
The knowledge that you have with the nature
seems very important for the society as a whole.
Yeah. Each family, each person is responsible for different animals.
They should have a totem they're connected to,
to make sure that animal survives.
-Right.
If you watch them and learn from them, they teach you all the secrets
you need to know when running around.
So we fish at the low tide.
All the big crocs and sharks, they come back in the high tide.
So we have six hours. They have six hours. We have to learn to share with everything.
So this is a big male. This is your buck.
-You got many more? -Just one.
-Look at that thing. Unreal. -A little dull one there in the scooter.
This is your male. You look underneath, you see triangular shape in the base.
That's how you tell the male there. They're big fighters, get bigger claws.
-Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho!
-Wanna hold it? -Look at that. Sure.
-So here, the safest way. -Drop him up there a little bit.
The trick is keep your hands to the back. Don't put your hand in front.
-Underneath. -Don't go underneath.
-They can reach and grab you. -Really?
Most people don't realize how dangerous these mud crabs can be.
-Got him? -I think so.
One of their claws can crush you. The other one can cut.
They'll usually run towards you if you get too close to them.
He's got the big fighting claw. That's his cracker.
Don't wanna get a hold of that. It'll break bones, that one.
If he grabs you with the other one, he'll cut a finger off.
-Really? Jesus. -Test it out.
-Pinky. Pinky finger. -Kind of want all my fingers.
Look at that.
Catch.
-Pretty formidable, aren't they? -This one belongs to you.
No worries, bud. Just pop him on the ground.
-Nice to meet you, bud. -Sweet. Thank you, guys.
-All right. Making us hopeful. -Yeah.
All right.
-Oh. Got some coconuts here, right? -Yeah, that's the plan.
Let the guys do all the running around out there. We'll crack the nuts.
So we just use the pick and start on the soft end.
Some for you.
Nice.
And you want to scrape in here.
This is the best way to make coconut milk, right here. Cheers.
You have to show the other fellas how to--
-That's right. Thank you, brother. -…how to get a feed. Anytime.
-Oh, there's one. -There's one? Lost him?
Yep. He lost him.
Now I know what I'm looking for.
-Crab. -There's one over there. See him?
-How'd you see that far? Oh. -See him walking up? Come get him.
-Come close.
Spear that dark thing.
Missed. See it there?
Missed. Under it.
-Under it. -There.
He nailed it.
-There you go. Dead center. -Wow.
There's your crabby.
Right through the middle.
Yes, I love fly-fishing 'cause it's always catch and release
back in the States, but I feel better knowing that we're gonna catch this guy
and actually eat him.
They taste better when you catch 'em yourself.
Yeah, I bet.
Look at him, man.
That's it. I'll show you how to cook 'em. Hope you fellas are hungry.
-Hey there. Hi. I'm Darin. -Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Delissa.
I'm a traditional basket weaver. I've got my niece, Cayanna, sitting down here.
Hi, Cayanna.
This is what I used to do with my grandmother.
-So we would sit down with her. -Right on. Where's this fiber from?
So we're using the black palm tree. It's a very rare tree.
The black palm tree only grows
along a narrow coastal region along the wet tropics.
So the timber part, the men will use
for their clapsticks.
Ah, see, this is a lot of ceremonial stuff.
Yes. So your clapsticks, woomeras, spearheads, so nothing gets wasted,
because we are taking the whole tree.
Every tree that I cut down over in the Daintree, I replant.
-So to keep it sustainable. -Great.
Practicing traditional culture
when settlement came through was something that was highly illegal.
So we're very lucky it's been passed down through our family,
through the women, to the next generation.
And they're doing the same thing,
passing it on to the next generation after them.
Dilly bags like that one traditionally are used for baby carrying.
So the handle goes on your head. So, like that.
That's how they carried babies in the bush.
When I do big ones like this,
it takes me about three months.
-Three months? -Yeah, so a really long time.
But then a little one like this are only, like, half an hour.
We used to sit down with Nana on holidays. That was like our story time.
My nana was actually hidden inside a basket.
-During the Stolen Generation when-- -What?
Yeah, when the white authorities came to take children away.
Are you kidding?
She was given a burnie bean to hold to keep her quiet as a baby.
And she was not taken at that time.
The relocation and removal of our kids
and our families from our traditional lands is not a long time ago.
It's only one generation back.
So we're so blessed to be able to still have our culture intact here
and be able to share it with the rest of the world.
So other than being literally just caught out of the ocean,
what's the secret here to cook a good crab?
Drop 'em in there.
Be based in your mix. There's a bit of coconut oil.
Well-measured.
Drop a block of butter in there.
-Garlic. That's just crushed garlic. -I love garlic. It's sweet.
These are mostly bird's eye chili. This is 25 years old.
This is just chilies, vinegar, and salt. So you get a couple of them.
That's just vinegar and salt, is the juice in that stuff.
Oh, man.
You'll smell that as soon as it starts cooking.
If you cook a crab too long, the meat will stick to the skin, gets hard to peel.
This is a bush lemon. It's got a lot better taste than most lemon you'll get.
Really? Bush lemon?
Yep. Have a taste of that, fella.
Drop a bit of salt with it.
Put a lid on that, and that takes five minutes.
That's gonna steam it?
Watch for everything else to turn orange.
-And it's all done. -Dip that in there?
Get right down in there.
Ooh…
That's good. Then once that's finished, if anyone wants more, we'll cook more.
-Start a new batch. -Mm.
Man, I wonder how Darin's doing with his baskets.
Oh, got to have patience.
-What is this supposed to look like?
-Just so I know. -Okay.
-This is the final product. -Oh wow. Look at that.
Feels really good to stop, focus on something,
slow down, hear some of your stories.
I hope you enjoyed yourself.
-Yeah. -Thank you very much.
-Hey. What's up, guys? -How'd you go?
-How are you, fellas? -How'd you go?
-Pretty good. -Yeah?
Yeah, I got a ton of good stuff.
-Had some fun? -Bunch of crabs, man.
Yeah. Hey, that's not bad.
We found some cool medicinal plants. We ate some coconuts.
-Sweet. -Epic afternoon, yeah.
-Unreal. -Always.
This place is just… It's a grocery store, your pharmacy. It's everything you need.
It's beautiful to see how you live.
And thanks for continuing the tradition and for welcoming us in.
No worries. Anytime you're back, drop in. There's always family up there.
-Thank you, guys. Thank you, brother. -Thank you, man.
-Really appreciate it.
-We'll see you next time for sure. -Thanks, guys. Have a good one.
Our next stop takes us to a national park in the northern part of Queensland,
but it's not your typical park.
Over the course of just 400 million years,
Mother Nature created this incredible sculpture.
Landmasses shifted, water flowed, limestone dissolved.
And this is the end result, the Chillagoe Caves.
The connection between the Indigenous people of Australia
and the Chillagoe Caves goes back tens of thousands of years.
Unfortunately, I was pretty sick on the day scheduled for the caves,
so Darin went solo.
-Wow, this is extraordinary. -There you are.
What is this place?
It's a little place called Chillagoe.
Well, in here we have a little daylight chamber,
and I want to show you some marine fossils too as well.
-Oh, really? -Mm-hmm.
This used to be underwater.
-Yeah. -How long ago?
They say it goes back around 400 million years ago.
-Four hundred million? -Yep.
Whoa.
How did this happen like this? It just seems like it's… Comes out of nowhere.
Yes. So with all this coal and sediment mixed together,
it forms a sedimentary rock, a normal limestone.
And with the Earth's crust moving, and a lot more heat and pressure,
push it up vertically, like we see today.
Wow.
It's hard to imagine,
but scientists believe these caves began to form about 400 million years ago.
Back then, this was all underwater.
Hey, what are you?
I'm an ammonite, a marine predator from long ago.
Vast numbers of my kind once populated the seas around here,
before we became extinct.
So the ammonite fossils found around here are just more evidence?
Yes, that this area was once all underwater.
Over millions of years, the Earth's tectonic plates shifted,
converging into one another, forming the mountains.
Millions of years of rain and erosion
then helped to form the caves within these mountains,
creating the beauty you see today,
left for the traditional custodians of the land to watch over and use
for the last 60,000 years.
But remember, my kind hasn't been here for about 65 million years.
Ooh, that reminds me, I should probably go.
Oh, um…
See ya later?
Only in fossil form!
Wow, man.
This is incredible.
When I take people through the caves, they see the beauty in it too,
like, exactly the same as I do. And that's why I love doing this job.
There you go. Crossed it over there.
Wow.
Holy cow.
-We are in it, Eddie. -We are in the cave.
It was discovered in 1891.
1891?
Yeah, by a bloke by the name of William Atherton.
Uh-huh.
-That's a spider there. -There's a what?
Where's the spider?
When people see the Huntsman Spider, they go, "Aah!" Yeah.
And they get a fright.
About the size of my hand.
Eddie, explain to me all these different pointing structures.
-What are those called? -They're called stalactite.
Stalactite?
You get the stalagmite, the one coming from the ground.
With the stalactite, they have moisture going through the middle,
and like a little straw, drips down,
forms the stalagmites, and then makes that rise.
How long does it take for these things to form?
With the stalactite, three to five centimeters every 100 years.
And with the stalagmite, only one centimeter every 100 years.
-Here we go. You can see here… -Yeah. Here it is.
…where there's moisture on the bottom.
-Look at that. -It'll take a while to drip, so…
Should I touch it or leave it? I should leave it.
So, soon as I take 'em into that first daylight chamber…
Wow!
-…their first reaction is, "Wow."
"This looks huge. This looks like a cathedral."
One of our daylight chambers here in this cave.
That is one of the most beautiful things I think I've ever seen.
It is beautiful. This is the most impressive part of the tour.
How do you not ask the question of who you are, or what you are,
"What is this? What is this all about?"
when you come in places like this?
Eddie, you definitely didn't prep me for this.
-Oh my God. -I got a beautiful office, haven't I?
Wow.
This is where Aboriginal people would've come to get away from weathering.
Right.
But they didn't go deeply into this cave 'cause it's too dark.
It's close. Got some light. Come in here. It's flat.
Mm-hmm.
This whole cave area, being able to share that
with myself and others, it's got to feel special.
It is. Like you said before, you felt something.
-Yeah. -And you kept it.
-Yeah. -That's good.
So I'm taking Darin outside the cave, up on this hill for a better view.
You can see miles around.
All right, Darin. I'm gonna show you some rock art.
-Rock art? -That's right, yep.
The real treat is underneath this rock cover.
Have a look up on the ceiling.
Whoa.
Beautiful rock art here.
As you can see up here, you get a lot of these stars up here too.
So a lot of the Aboriginal people around here…
We are called the Wakaman people around this area,
and we knew the stars from navigating at nighttime.
So this thing here,
it sort of leads you over toward this big evening star you always get.
-Right here. -It follows that.
-It'll take you to water. -Really?
So all of this was based on the land here.
-That's right. -Wow.
Over here on this side here, you can see some dog prints up there.
Yeah.
We have a big spiritual dog up here,
we call a Djungan dog, and that's his track up there.
So as you can see in the far distance over there, you'll see now the rock face.
That's where the dog in the story starts, over there.
Then the king would come here with all his wives, seven wives, sit down here.
You can see the view already, so you can see other tribes coming in.
Eastern side of us here, you get the Mbabaram people,
and then north of us, you have the Kuku Djungan tribe,
who came into this area too as well.
So this told you the story of water,
the story of where the dog came from.
Yeah, because there's a map behind you with that dog face.
-Nice. -So he's pointing to that area.
The bluish-gray rock over there is where the deepest part of the ocean used to be.
And this area where we are standing on now is the shallow end of the sea.
Right here?
Now I have a prehistoric treat to show to Darin.
This is a marine fossil
that dated back 65 million years ago when this land was underwater.
This was literally part of a reef…
-Right. -…400 million years ago.
-Brother, thank you, man. -No worries.
-Sunrise, sunset. There's the water. -That's right.
As a tour guide, it's important to preserve this
because there's a lot of history in this area here.
I just hope people know how old, and how beautiful this land is,
and they walk away wanting to preserve it.
Each experience brings me back to the same question.
What should we be doing?
I'm reminded of our time with Bruce Pascoe.
How can we learn more from the Indigenous all over the world?
Is there… There seems to be so much magic in the past.
-Cup of tea. -Cup of tea.
-Just like we're doing. -Yeah. Sit down. Get your teapot.
Find out what kind of tea that the old ladies and the old men like.
Um…
-Whether they take milk, they take sugar. -Okay.
-And, you know, but that kind of care-- -The respect. Yeah.
You know, we put our food on the table.
We share it with each other and talk about sustainability.
This is not a cure-all. This is conversation.
And that conversation will produce a better, better place.
But it's not just with Indigenous people. It's with each other. We've stopped…
-Communicating. -…loving each other.
-That is so awesome. -I'm incredibly grateful to you.
-Thank you so much. -Yeah. That's beautiful.
It's so simple.
Sit down. Listen. This world is ours to share.
Thanks, Bruce.
Here's our next opportunity to do just that.
We're going to the Girringun Rainforest area
to meet with Sonya Takau, communication officer,
and Phil Rist, CEO, both of the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation.
My name's Phil Rist.
I'm the executive officer of the very prominent
Aboriginal Land and Sea Management Center in Queensland.
But across Australia as well. So there's nine groups of us,
and it's a big area that we cover.
Australia has a very dark history, you know, in how,
uh, this country treated Indigenous Australians.
And the more people that understand and become aware of
the struggle of Indigenous Australians in general, the better.
We have this saying in our… in that
it's usually the father and the son that really take on the hard-core stuff.
And when the father's had enough, he lays his spear down,
and then the son takes it up, you know, and continues the fight, if you like.
That is changing now, and it's not so much the son.
Now it's the daughter picking up that spear for us.
But you guys are part of that as well. Your willingness to listen and learn,
and it becomes part of that change agency.
Australia's one of the most wealthiest countries on the planet.
But in the heart of Australia
is the struggle that's been going on for generations and generations.
It's part of that assimilation, I suppose, into this dominant culture.
And there are a lot of problems with that.
What I'm just blown away with is
why is that not brought together in terms of the governments
and the other people here
to then take that wisdom together and make a better country?
I struggle with that, really struggle with that question.
For years, white Australia has been saying that we're not as good as everybody else.
And so that becomes ingrained,
and there's a superior-inferior complex that I sometimes refer to.
And I think things are changing now. It's been changing for a little while now.
I feel what you're saying, and I do agree. I think change is coming.
I know that there's a young generation, you know, that's really open-minded,
and forward-thinking, and, um…
It's exciting for me to sit with you guys today,
'cause you were talking about your voice, you know.
And if we can in any way spread the word
and to raise the volume, so to speak, of your voice…
-Thank you. -I'm truly, truly grateful.
We love you.
-This is the coolest thing we've-- -Can we keep you?
We don't want you to go.
-Careful. We may-- -You'll never get rid of us.
Aboriginal people should be heavily involved
in the global issues that we face today.
You can't fix the natural environment without taking into consideration
those internal connections within the natural environment.
Okay. So Zac and Darin,
we have a very special guest to introduce you to.
This is Khoa.
Hi, Khoa.
Hello, baby. He's very, very timid, very shy.
So he is a purebred rain forest dingo.
Dingoes in this country are highly, highly villainized.
At the present moment, it's a war between the livestock industry,
and those that want to protect them and save them.
Dingoes are classified in the genus Canis,
the same as wolves, coyotes, foxes, and dogs.
And while they look cute and cuddly,
wild dingoes are ferocious predators, the same as most carnivores.
So, currently, in the state of Queensland, you have two legislative acts
that basically want to wipe them out to extinction.
As Aboriginal people, we know that this guy
is highly valuable in the natural environment.
He is Australia's top apex predator.
And for any environmental or ecological system to remain balanced,
you have to have an apex predator.
If you leave him alone to let him do his job as nature's balancer,
everything balances out.
We've been taught growing up, leave nature alone.
It knows how to look after itself. It doesn't need us.
The dingo and the Aboriginal people have more in common.
We've been shot at. We've been poisoned. And we've been trapped.
And when I say trapped, there was a Black slave trade in this country.
Sonya enlightens us with the harsh reality of the parallel
between Aboriginal people and the Australian dingoes.
We've come a little way, but there is a long, long way to go
to change that colonial mindset
that has just been so driven in this country.
It's amazing, the parallels that you would be able to draw on.
If we allowed the dingo to be free and to operate as he would normally in nature,
everything might find its equilibrium again.
It seems similar. If people listened to the Indigenous voice,
then everything would find balance.
When you bring that Western science,
and you bring Indigenous knowledge together,
there are beautiful solutions out there
that can happen for the natural environment.
The Aboriginal culture belongs to the world.
Mm.
And if it's the oldest-living culture on this planet,
then it's up to every one of us…
-To be grateful for it. -Be grateful for it. Absolutely.
I can't wait to share this with as many people as I possibly can.
The fact that Zac and Darin are here and listening means the world
because someone finally listened to an Aboriginal voice.
And from that point on,
it's that flow-on effect that when you share something positive,
that is good not just for Aboriginal people, but for everybody,
and most importantly, the natural environment,
then you're doing something right.
You know, I, I walk away from those things…
My heart is exploding.
Having these conversations with people, it's complex.
-Absolutely. -There's so many different aspects to it.
But one thing I do know,
Bruce Pascoe was right.
Mm-hmm.
You have to sit down and talk.
Sitting there, being with them,
feeling the energies…
Yeah.
…and having a discussion honestly and openly,
I think that's a superpower that we're missing in the world, you know?
Yes, I know what you mean. The world's so much bigger than your backyard,
your school, or your job, you know? We get to see it on so many levels.
I come back with such… so much more appreciation.
-It feels really special, huh? -This is it. I'm happy.
I figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life. I'm 33.
Doing pretty good.
-Season 53 of Down to Earth… -I wanna be David Attenborough.
We can't change the past,
and we might not ever be able to right the wrongs of it,
but we can take time to learn the history of others
and to listen to their voices today.
Although they have a long way to go,
Australia has begun a dialogue and acknowledgment of those who came before.
All countries that have yet to do so should follow that lead.
Everyone deserves a seat at the table,
to be heard, to be a part of the discussion.
The world isn't such a big place anymore. We're all neighbors now.
And even the smallest things we do, good or bad, have an effect on each other.
Yes, we can collectively preserve the culture of yesterday,
and at the same time, make plans for a better tomorrow.
But we do it by all working together today.