Deconstructing Australian Genocide, Ecocide: t he provenance and agency of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order Ray Gibbons History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order ii Notes on front cover Things are not always as they seem. The juxtaposition of images on the front cover – Aborigin al bones on the left, clear felled timber on the right - is intended to reveal a dispossessory order that might not otherwise be apparent, the shape of things unseen, of underlying processes and their intended consequences , of the congruence between genoci de and ecocide and the failure of sustainability , a failure of values The bone pile image is from a reported Aboriginal massacre site in the Northern Territory. Such massacres happened across the continent in an extended and one - sided Lemkinian race war until the Aboriginal presence was removed from all contested s p aces and their voices became mut e About a month ago I was taken by Arnhem Elders fishing on their country to a waterhole. While fishing I was asked did I want to see some “blackfella bones”. I got told the Clan people that camped here died long ago, about 100 of them, entire family clan , as a ‘snake spirit’ got angry and killed them all. What I was taken to see was heartbreaking, bones from babies to adults in a heap. When I asked can I take pi ctures I got told its alright as there are no ‘speakers’ left for this area as they all got kil led at the same time. (Traditional Aboriginal people only claim and speak for their own clan country in their language group, nothing else). Evidence of white ma n first showing up was painted on the wall as a horse. They would not have known that over time this horse brought in what was eventually going to kill them. The large waterhole was a place the Europeans watered their cattle and horses. Over time the famil y group camped there were interfering with the cattle. When other Clan people found the dead in a heap, no survivors, they went back and a law man said the sn ake spirit did this. None of the skulls had bullet marks as poisoned food was most likely used. It had been used before, on Florida Station in Arnhem Land 1885 the White man had feed poisoned horse meat given to a family group that had killed a steer to ea t. They were all wiped out. 1 The bone pile image bears a terrifying similarity with deforestation . And indeed, we will show that genocide and ecocide are strongly connected through common behavioural motivations, with destructive processes having destructive outcomes, as is the intent , formed in the Petri dish of de jure Imperialism and - later - auth oritarianism In April 1770, Captain Cook RN arrived on the east coast of Australia in a converted collier ( coal hauler ) where , o n first landing at ‘stingray bay’ (now Botany Bay) he shot at Aboriginal people who were gesturing ‘ go away’ , having earlier m assacred nine Maoris at Gisborne in New Zealand who also did not want him Australia continues to haul coal to the world as it shows a middle finger to global warming concerns 2 1 https://thestringer.com.au/why - australia - day - has - to - finish - not - be - move d - to - anot her - day - or - month - or - renamed - but - fin ished - 9011#. XaZ ra - gzbIX https://thestri nger.com.au/wp - content/uploads/2014/11/sv2 - 300x224.jpg 2 Naomi Klein (2019), On Fire; for the 8 th October 1769 Gisborne massacre s ee https://www.bbc.com/news/world - asia - 49958027 h ttps:// www .theguardian. com/world/2019/oct/02/britain - expresses - regret - over - maori - killings - after - captain - cooks - arrival - in - new - zealand History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order iii Copyright © 20 20 Ray Gibbons Publishing history : First published April 20 2 0 Abridged version. All rights reserved. No part of this volume may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior p ermission in writin g fr om the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 percent of this volume, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provi ded that the educat iona l institution (or body that administers it) has given remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Keywords: Aboriginal dispossession, Australian Bill of Rights, Australian colonial history, authoritarianis m, behavioural psyc hology, British Imperialism, dispossession, ecocide, epigenetics, ethics, genocide, history as landscape, justice and fairness, Lemkinian processes, meta - history, political science, racism, reconciliation, rule - based order, rules of sove rei gnty, social con tracts, social science, sustainability, transformational myth, treaties, and values. Acknowledgments: Wide interest in various aspects of this subject area led to a revised and updated version in January 20 20 that includes ad ditional references and source material. This is an abridged version. We are reminded that what we are is what we were, unless we forget, or unless we ignore. Forgetfulness can perhaps be forgiven as a sclerotic artefact of past behavioural morbidity; Ignorance or i ndifference is to k neel before the ‘great Australian silence ’. Therefore, this paper acknowledges the victims of Lemkinian settler supremacy. And those for the coming ecocide. Unless we change. Notes on the organization of the material: Some narratives, d epending on the nat ure of the subject, can be complex. To si mplify the conceptual interdependency, we have normalized the material, as for the twisted strands in a length of yarn, where the text ual thread carries embedded box commentaries and the usual por cupine of supportin g footnotes. Together, intertwined, they reinforce and impel the narrative. History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order iv Abstract and forward In Australia, u nsustainable e xploitation now impacts not just on Aboriginal people but entire ecosystems , leaving the bones of a scarred l andscape. Humanity has become a pandemic. W e confront clear felling of diminishing native forests for yet more cattle farming ; the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef through warming seas, ocean acidification and agricultural runoff ; increasing drought s everity ; more monst rous bush fires ; disappearing species ; dying rivers ; and a recalcitrant neoliberal authoritarian Government that is in denial. Nature is voiceless to protest; just as Aboriginal society was in the past 3 *** This paper, in the context o f post - 1788 Austral ia, deconstructs the type normative behaviours of genocide and ecocide within a progenitorial rule - based value framework that gives structure and substance to our evolving ontology , our national sense of self , of identity, a sense that r ejects sustainabili ty and rewards self - gratification Who are we? Why are we the way are? And can we learn ? Can we change? Or must we blindly follow p ast mistakes , unheeding, unbending, perhaps uncaring, hostage to the great Australian silence, where apat hy and self - interes t still define our collective character ? Indigenous Australians had rights , rights from time immemorial, from prehistory . Their rights were trampled upon by Britain. The result was rolling genocide. Now we forget and become irritated if we are reminded. N o r is t he biosphere immune from our folly . I ndividually we may believe – wrongly - that our ecological footprint is small , of small consequence But collectively, we cause ecocide: deforestation, species extinction, global warming. We ca nnot take from the E arth without limit, or dump into it without limit. For us to continue to think so reflects our exploitative behaviour , w e want more , the conflict between our ability to plan and our desire to exploit, a conflict that did not exist in Ab original society wh e re the 3 https:/ /www.greenle ft. org.au/sites/ default/files/public_files/deforestation - in - australia.jpg History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order v Earth was their father and mother to be cherished and protected forever. Instead, at the point of a n invader’s gun, they had t o endure the brutal ‘ ending of their world ’, a process poignantly narrated by Mudrooroo in a challengin g parable for our t i me. This is now us , o ur epitaph . Unless we change. *** History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order vi Ecocide : Destruction of the natural environment 4 Genocide : The mass extermination of human beings, esp. of a race or nation. 5 Bill of Rights : An English act of law, passed in 16 89, guaranteeing pe ople, especiall y landowners and parliamentari a ns, f r eedom and basic rights; the first ten amendments to the US Consti t ution, which protect people’s basic human rights 6 Social contract : an agreement among individual people in a society o r between the peopl e and their gov ernment that outlines the rights and duties of each party. It derives from the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau and involves people giving up freedoms in returns for benefits such as state protection. 7 New Zealand Bil l of Rights Act 199 0 An Act — (a) t o affirm, protect, and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms in New Zealand; and (b) to affirm New Zealand's commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 8 Ecuadorian Rights of Nature 200 8 (Amende d Constitu tion) Thi s Bill gives N ature a voice by a sserting that nature in all its life forms h as the right to exist, pe r sist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles And we – the peop l e – have the legal autho r ity to enforc e these rights on beh alf of ecosystems. The ecosys t em itself can be named as the defendant 9 4 The Oxford English Reference Dictio nary. 5 The Oxford English Reference Dictionary. We will later amplify this definition within it s legal Le mkinian meaning. 6 Macqua rie Internat ion al English Di ctionary. Ecocide is not a crime under international law. 7 Ibid. By comparison, this is the Abor iginal social contract: https :// theconversati on.com/friday - essay - lessons - from - stone - indigenous - thinking - and - the - law - 122617 8 http://www.l eg islation. govt.nz/ac t/public/1990/0109/latest /DLM224792.h tml 9 https://therightsofnature.org/ecuador - rights/ http s://theright sof nature.org/wp - content/uploads/pdfs/Rights - for - Nature - Articles - in - Ecuadors - Constitution.pdf History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order vii Contents Preface ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................... xii Introduction and Allegro ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 1 Prologue: Australia’s Dispossessory Contextual Landscape ................................ ............. 51 The patterned logistics and mechanics of Australian genocide ................................ ................... 53 The patterned logistics and mechanics of Australian ecocide ................................ .................... 126 Part 1: Deconstructing Australia’s Social Contract Ontology ................................ .......... 169 The provenance of the global and domestic order ................................ ................................ ..... 177 The provenance of Australian dispossessory values ................................ ................................ ... 181 Deconstructing societal ‘rule - based constraints’ ................................ ................................ ........ 208 Australian Social Contract Contextual Landscape ................................ ................................ ....... 230 Modelling Societ y : the rise of Australian authoritarianism ................................ ........................ 321 History as Landscape ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 346 Part 2: Social Contract Contextual Referents ................................ ................................ 367 The Problem of Evil ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 369 Morality, Normative Ethics and Civil Society ................................ ................................ .............. 385 Racism a n d Social Darwinism ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 411 The Measure of a Value - Based Society: Normative Ethics Revisited ................................ ......... 420 Justice and Fairness ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 432 Social Contracts and Sovereignty ................................ ................................ ................................ 436 Obligations or Rights; Rights or Privileges? ................................ ................................ ................ 444 The Role of Racism and Self Interest in Legalized Dispossession ................................ ............... 447 ‘Legal’ Dispossession and Stolen Rights ................................ ................................ ...................... 454 Accountability and British Law ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 494 Part 3: The Evolution of Australia’s Rule - Based Order ................................ ................... 506 Rules of Sovereignty ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 507 Rules of Conflict Engagement ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 513 Rules of shared land use ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 523 History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order viii Rules of Evidence ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 525 Rules of Accountability ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 540 Rules of Citizenship; Questions of Disenfranchisement ................................ ............................. 551 Ru l e s of Culture and Identity ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 560 Rules of Cooperation and Sustainability ................................ ................................ ..................... 572 Rules of Governance and our Duty of Care ................................ ................................ ................. 589 Part 4 : Towards an Australian Bill of Rights ................................ ................................ ... 598 Modelling Society (reprised) ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 598 Shaping Society ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................... 609 Normative Behaviour as a Social Construct ................................ ................................ ................ 614 The Role of a Bill of Rights ................................ ................................ ................................ ........... 618 Epilogue: A post - Lemkinian Australia ................................ ................................ ............ 641 Towards a Value - Based Society ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 642 Towards Accountability ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 650 Towards Sustainability ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 662 Towards a Civil Society ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 679 Towards a Trans f ormational Myth ................................ ................................ ............................. 684 APPENDIX ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 714 Selected Bibliography ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 714 History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order ix List of Figures Figure 1 Captured Pangolin at the Wuhan wildlife meat market ................................ ......................... 20 Figure 2 A brief history of catastrophes, 1918 - 2020 ................................ ................................ .......... 33 Figure 3 Australian firestorm, December 2019 ................................ ................................ .................... 40 Figure 4 Cau sal chain or root cause analysis or presumed human behavioural primacy in a value typology ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 46 Figure 5 System diagram for juridical categorial agency relationships ................................ ................ 47 Figure 6 Rights shape rules (feedforward process) ................................ ................................ .............. 49 Figure 7 The procedural relationship between genocide, ecocide, dispossession, and authoritarianism ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 57 Figure 8 Conditional trigger typology for the typ e process of omnicidal land acquisition ................... 62 Figure 9 Omnicide typology ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 66 Figure 10 A degrading environment with dec lining resources is the primary cause of the limits to growth ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 77 Figure 11 World GDP is declining (1960 – 2018) and was negative in the post - GFC ........................... 77 Figure 12 Comparison between population growth and GDP growth for Sub - Saharan Africa ............ 78 Figure 13 Australian GDP is declining (1960 - 2018) and was negative in 1984 and 1992 ................... 79 Figure 14 System dynamics for limits to growth ................................ ................................ .................. 82 Figure 15 Simplified model of the Australian Occupation Process, showing the role of Involved Parti es ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 96 Figure 16 Process Flow decomposition for Australian Lemkinian genocide ................................ ........ 97 Figure 17 Type Occupation Process showing actionable components ................................ ................. 98 Figure 18 Cumulative number of recorded massacres in Queensland, by decade ............................. 111 Figure 19 Cumulative Barambah Deaths: 1905 - 1939 ................................ ................................ ....... 122 Figure 20 Cumulative Barambah Deaths: 1905 – 1939 ................................ ................................ ...... 123 Figure 21 View o f Sydney, Port Jackson, taken from the Rocks on the western side of Sydney Cove ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 127 Figure 22 NSW RFS firefighters battle the sheer size of the Gospers Mountain bushfire emergency burning west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains. (AAP) ................................ ................................ ....... 140 Figure 23 Wollemi pines preser ved while all around was burnt ................................ ........................ 141 Figure 24 The Sydney Opera House shrouded in haze (Picture: EPA) ................................ ................ 143 Figure 25 Pedestrians wear masks as smoke and haze from bushfires hit Sydney (Picture: EPA) ..... 144 Figure 26 Global warming, 1860 – 202 0 ................................ ................................ ............................ 147 Figure 27 Australian climate warming, 1920 - 2020 ................................ ................................ ........... 147 Figure 28 Australian annual mean temperature anomaly 1910 – 2019 ................................ ............ 148 Figure 29 Australian January mean temperature, 1910 – 2019 ................................ ........................ 148 Figure 30 Queensland land clearing 2009 - 2018 ................................ ................................ ............... 164 Figure 31 Bulldozed and burnt forest at Wombinoo Queensland ................................ ...................... 164 Figure 32 A koala surrounded by the destruction of i ts home through deforestation ...................... 166 Figure 33 A koala mother and joey on a log pile in Queensland ................................ ....................... 166 Figure 34 Mega - bushfires induced by climate change are now destro ying native habitat ............... 167 Figure 39 A koala begs cyclists for water during December Adelaide heat wave .............................. 168 History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order x Figure 41 Example of a hie rarchy of needs devolving top - down from national interest (security/ economy) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............ 191 Figure 42 Deci and Ryan Self Determination Theory ................................ ................................ .......... 194 Figure 43 Schwartz value/ group matrix ................................ ................................ ............................. 197 Figure 44 Schwartz theory of basic values ................................ ................................ .......................... 201 Figure 45 Schwartz dynamic underpinning s of the 'universal' value structure ................................ 201 Figure 46 Continuu m between emotions, values, rights and constraint rules ................................ ... 203 Figure 47 Di fferential model for self - interest (S) constrained by a legisl ative framework (L) with boundary B. ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 204 Figure 48 Categorial mapping (unnormalized single thread hierarchy) ................................ ............. 207 Figure 49 Conformal - like mapping between two rule - based state spaces D 1 and D 2 (with adaptation) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 210 Figure 50 Rising income inequality ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 212 Figu re 51 Feedback loop in a closed system ................................ ................................ ....................... 214 Figure 52 Primary hypothetical process control loops in the Australian social contract ................... 215 Figure 53 Five - year running average of global temper ature anomalies (1854 – 2019) ..................... 216 Figure 54 Australia's climate change: 1920 - 2020 ................................ ................... 217 Figure 55 Negative feedback loop in social modelling and process control kinetics ......................... 223 Figure 56 Positive feedback loop in soci al modelling and process control kinetics ........................... 224 Figure 57 Social contract facets (faceted classification schema) ................................ ........................ 235 Figure 58 Classif ication schema for a social contract juridical typology ................................ ............. 239 Figure 59 Contextual legislative timeline provenance for a proposed Australian Bill of Rights ......... 274 Figure 60 Global CO 2 emissions, 1850 – 2010 ................................ ................................ .................... 285 Figure 61 Importance/ Performance grid reference for values within the social contract domain for rule - based order ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 294 Figure 62 Value vectors: preferred migration of type values from HL to HH ................................ ..... 295 Figure 63 Value - construct: security - topological mappi ng ................................ ................................ 302 Figure 64 Value - construct: freedom - topological mapping ................................ ............................... 312 Figure 65 United Nations Conventions ratified by Australia but n ot incorporated in domestic law. 320 Figure 66 Value typology and associated constraint rules ................................ ................................ 345 Figure 67 Lemkinian destruction by faceted agency ................................ ................................ .......... 348 Figure 68 The view from Govett’s Leap at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, from which point Darwin made his observation. ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 362 Figure 69 Timeline to the collapse of the British Empire. ................................ ................................ ... 410 Figure 70 Captain James Cook statue, Hyde Park, Sydney ................................ ................................ 568 Figure 71 Captain Arthur Phillip statue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney ................................ ........... 569 Figure 72 Cathy Wilcox on Australia’s use of carryover carbon credits at COP25. ............................ 576 Figure 73 Australian ecocide and gen ocide have a common systemic (type) determinant in multicide ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 580 Figure 74 Kathy Wilcox, Sydney Morning Herald, May 2019 ................................ .............................. 641 Figure 75 Enquiries into Aboriginal disadvantage ................................ ................................ .............. 655 History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order xi Figure 76 Lost in the Policy of Aboriginal Housing: Nicky Nothing lives in poverty in a Tennant Creek camp with four dogs ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 656 Figure 77 An Aboriginal woman prepares food in the squalid 2017 conditions of a Central Australian town camp ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 657 Figure 78 Image of Elsey Station on the Roper River in the Northern Territory, ca 1902 .................. 671 Figure 79 Disused and unremediated mining dump at Kakadu in the Northern Terr itory. ............... 673 Figure 80 2010 Dioxin levels in Sydney Harbour ................................ ................................ ................ 700 Figure 81 Emily Kngwarreye: Earth’s Creation , 1994. ................................ ................................ ........ 705 History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order xii Preface I really didn’t want to write this book. The subject matter is confront i ng. My sister advised against it. Bu t I was curious. Why do we act the way we do? Are dysfunctional behaviours like genocide and ecocide linked? If so, how ? Is unsustainabili ty the key, with our increasing ecological footprint? How are our values implica t ed? Are we a nation of takers, witho ut a measured regard for the con sequences? One question led to others. I became a bsorbed as to where the journey would l ead. I was surprised and appalled at what I found , yet hopeful that we as a civil society might yet learn , that our failing social contr act might yet adapt through our concerted a ction , our collective agency Simon Sc hama wrote about landscape and memory, an exploration of culture and place So it is here. We will discover new terrain, look for landmark s , and set our path to wards some obje ctive. Our food will be a mix of sweet and sour, what Prokofiev called consonance and dissonance , to hold and sustain us on course It is incomplete what w e say about metaphor: just beyond the reach of our tools, stran g eness is accommodated by what we fin d familiar. *** This document is organized to deconstruct the deep relationship b etween genocide and ecocide. It is a su mmary of a m o re detailed multi - volum e work We explore how embedded values shape societal rules and collective behaviour; how behavioura l morbidities can produce destru ctive outcomes; and therefore, how we are the pro duct of our environment, for better or worse. History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order xiii Introduction and Allegro i s a rapid synopsis of the key themes and arguments Prologue dr a ws out the patterns of genocide and ecocide within the values of a d ispossessory culture. Part 1 sets out the role of Australia’s evolving social contract i n its nati onal identity , in its bein g an d becoming, and why our values still drive dispossession P a rt 2 examines t h e provenance of Aust ralia’s social contrac t , the roo t cause analysis: how did we get to where we are, and can we adapt Part 3 identifies th e changing juridical basis for our d omes tic rule - based order , from de facto to de jur e, and the pre s sing need for a more enlightened leg islative framework , based on agr eed sustainable and enduring values Part 4 argue s for an Australian Bill of Rights , giv en the omnicidal consequences of ou r wor st flawed values and their associated rule - based order , an o rder that is visibly fraying as it s truggles to address disequilibri um and existential risk Epilogue sets out the po ssibilities for a post - Lemkinian future , where genocide and ecocide are nig htma res of past un reason, the biosphere is something for us all to treasure in perpetuity, and equal ity with freedom – that is, do n o harm - is the Constitutional foundation for our values , our place in Nature History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order 1 I ntr o duct ion and Alleg r o Is there a relations hip between generalized dysfunctional behaviours in a society a n d its normative values? If so, what is the relation ship? Is there a pattern for which each instantiation represents a point in time, a point in our formativ e history, where we can plot vectori al agency ac ross a behavioural dataset? We must first ask: What is dysfunctional? What are our value s? Do we accept that what was or what is must be the sum of our perceived reality , our ways of seeing, or must we peer b ehind the curtain for a glimpse of t he puppet ma ster, for that which controls us and pulls the stri n gs of our normalized behaviour? Job s and growth? S tronger border pr otection? A fair go? Who do you trust? Tradies, t hey’re coming after your ute! Free chil dcare is communism Taxes will alway s be lower u nder a Liberal Coalition Government. We will determ i ne who comes to our country and the circumstances o f their arrival. Manure the ground with their carcases. The mantr as of deception. While we dither on exi stential risk, and brush aside Abori ginal disadv antage, the long tail of Lemkinian repression still so evident, if we care to look, and ecocide starkly brought home by recent catastrophic bushfires, with our selfish behaviours further exposed by the Chine se SARS - Cov2 pandemic. Can we then d iagnose a society’s ills against some conceptual statistical an d diagnostic manual, assuming it exis ts, determine t he affliction or abnormal disorder, and then treat the condition? There is no such manual for a group of people, only for indivi duals, but, a s a thought experiment, let us imagine that the manual is befor e us now, with collective disorders a rranged by type : genocide, ecocide - both displacive and predatory - and the extent to which our normative values and be h a viours are im p licated along a sliding scale Omnicide Suppo se the normatively identified societa l pathologic al disorders are not separate but arise from common causes? Will the treatm ent then simplify around the primary causative factors? Would we reco gnize dysfunction, or would we laud the behav iour as commendab le? We History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order 2 know that exploitation is not s u stainable, but do we care? Is short - term self - interest more important than existentia l risk or shared interest? If omnicide - the destruction of otherness , other targeted groups, other species, other ecosystems, othe r societies , other races - is a colle c t ive compul sion by some cohort along a risk/reward gradient, is omnicide a disorder or simply a behavioural motivation, something to be applauded in a certa in type of society, the exerci se of power for unsustainable pe rsonal or group advantage, what some m a y misconst rue as Darwinian selection based on a flawed understanding of ‘fitness’? L emkinian Genocide The UN Convention reads in part: ... any of the follow ing acts committed with the in tent to destroy , in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, o r religious group, such as: • killing members of the group; • causing serious bodily or m ental harm to members of the group; • deliberately inflicting on the gr oup conditions of life, calcul ated to bring a bout its physical destruction in whole or part; • impos i n g measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] • forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. [Article 2 ] 10 We might easily w iden this definition to includ e other species and ecosystems Is the ordina riness of evil, somethi ng harmful or undesirable, certifiable , or must we accept it as ‘normal’, a normalised disorder, subje ct to legal processes rather than medical? Are motivati ons therefore in question? Can we challenge m otivations and subj ect them to s crutiny , as for a disease aet iology ? 10 http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity - crimes/Doc.1_Conve ntion%20on%20th e%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20o f%20Genocide.pdf History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order 3 If we don’t recognize the disease path ology, that is, the unwanted (or in some cases wanted) outcome of some proc edural agency, then how can we treat the symptoms? Wha t happens if the morbidity is structurally em bedded in a soc iety , either juri dically or economically or epigenetic ally? Genoci de, ecocide We must look to the past to see our future. We can only exploi t for as long as there is something to exploit. We are r unning out of time. Our bloody past still de fines us, the i nheritance of acq uired characteristics, e pigenetics, th e destructi ve behaviours from past generations biologically cemented in our ‘outback’ confrontational psyche, in our DNA, destroy the vermin, bulldoze the ‘scrub’ , us against the environ ment, expressed through Hansonis m and the Country party, through right wing conse rvative excess, through the redneck law of the bush, through the survival o f the most ruthlessly exploitative, through the isolated and forgotten and – at the other extreme – the greed - drive n, all of whom b rought a cavalcade of ne oliberals to p o wer, through Morrison with his meaningless ‘jobs and growth’ mantra and a lump of coal as his symbol. Now we are taking the environment from Nature. S ymbols can become epitap hs. We take and take until there is little left to take. We are a society of tak e rs, transactional, seeing life as a zero - sum game with winners and losers. The one per cent versus the rest. Ideology over morality. The hav es and the have - nots. We must give back to each o ther; we must giv e back to Nature. Richard Atten borough remind s us, for a first committed step we must also stop eating the dead flesh of slaughtered animals, a prof ligate practice that is as unsustainable as it is ecologically destructive W e have become a Wuhan wet market , inducing z oo notic afflict i ons to order We are hunter gatherers of the superm arket clan, foraging for our food fro m packets in a n eco nomy that depends on endless mountains of waste f or our proxy measure of productivity; we are cave dwellers who never grew u p, still capt ive to our ancient hormonally - mediated fight/ flight and risk/ reward response. Self - gr atification o ve r responsibi lity. Greed over insight. History as Landscape: the provenance of Australia’s dispossessory rule - based order 4 Now, our ever - evolving laws of property, arbitra ge, industry, and commercial arrangements encourage us to exploit for as lo ng as there i s a financial advantage. But we can’t fight Nature unless we d estroy ourselves. Eventu ally, Nature wi ll fight bac k. ** * What of Australian genocide? Synoptically, the se are the facts. They roll across history into the present, where they cha llenge us wit h their testimony. If we care to listen. A terrible crime against humanity was committe d in Australi a where the gh osts of the past still whisper from the ‘great Austral ian silence’. But we have not changed. Not really. By the early 20 th centur y, with the f irestorm of pastoralism having inexorably advanced across all parts of the continent, o ver 90% of Ab or iginal socie ty wa s made to disappear through extermination, target ed destruction, violent dispossession, death camps, cultural dismemberment, labour racke teering, stolen children, stolen land, st olen hope, predatorily imposed sexual disease, ‘breeding ou t the colour’ throu gh miscegenation and eugenics, all embedded in a process we now call Lemkinian genocide , if we are honest, or settler suprem acy and pasto ral triumphalism if we are not The crim e is continuing today, less violent, more insi dious, where th e rule of la w – a s it is ironically known - allows too many of our First People to suffer chronic health afflictions , early preventable death , poverty, th ird world housing and an extraordinary le vel of incarceration for often minor offences. We regularly a nd diligentl y upd ate our ‘Closing the Gap’ policy with the latest statistics, but the gap widens. 11 Now we want to change the policy, to avoi d its recurre nt condemnation. The police and Governme nt have replaced the military and a heavily arm ed squattocra cy in late sta ge Le mkinian genocide, where they use a rule - based ord er to cause systemic 11 https:// ctgreport.ni aa. gov.au/ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020 - 02 - 12/closing - th