Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2004
Volume
42
Journal
Australian Geographical Studies
Issue
1
First Page
60
Last Page
76
Abstract
The relationships between traditional Aboriginal land owners and other Park users in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory are characterised by competing agendas and competing ideas about appropriate ways of relating to the environment. Similarly, the management of recreational fishing in the Park is permeated by the tensions and opposition of contested ideas and perspectives from non-Aboriginal fishers and Aboriginal traditional owners. The local know- ledge and rights of ‘Territorians’ [non-Aboriginal Northern Territory residents] are continually pitted against the local knowledge and rights of Aboriginal tra- ditional owners. Under these circumstances, debates between non-Aboriginal fishers and Aboriginal traditional owners are overwhelmingly dominated by the unequal power relationships created through an alliance between science and the State. The complex and multi-dimensional nature of Aboriginal traditional own- ers’ concerns for country renders these concerns invisible or incomprehensible to government, science and non-Aboriginal fishers who are each guided by very different epistemic commitments. It is a state of affairs that leaves the situated knowledge of Aboriginal traditional owners with a limited authority in the non- Aboriginal domain and detracts from their ability to manage and care for their homelands.
