‘The Myth of Aboriginal Environmental Stewardship’

“Nothing is so pernicious as the profoundly-racist notion that somehow ‘indigenous peoples’ are genetically endowed with a special relationship, a spiritual kinship, with nature that makes them superior caretakers of the land.”

“…why is so much weight afforded to what is essentially raw, localized experience? If you strip away its spiritual accoutrements, you’re left with little more than the same wisdom that allows a fisherman to gauge impending weather, or derive crude conclusions on the state of fish stocks.”

“Surely, this is common sense. A person of any race or background can, at least in theory, be equally capable of protecting or destroying the environment.”