Wounded Space: Law, Justice and Violence to the Land

One of the most complex and pressing issues confronting Australian society today is the degradation and destruction of the environment. The fact that our soils, forests, wildlife and water have deteriorated so rapidly over the last two hundred years forces us to consider how our culture has impacted on this continent. Historically, our ethnocentric contempt for an “inferior” race, which often led to violence against indigenous people and the land, meant that our ignorance of indigenous knowledge systems denied us a shared space in which to discuss solutions. We have only gradually begun to realize that our understanding and management of the Australian environment can be enriched by recognising the knowledge that Aboriginal people have about “country” and living sustainably on this ancient and fragile continent. This paper analyses the role the law has played in shaping our nation and suggests that the law may be in fact implicated in the practice of injustice.