Cultural fishing practiced by indigenous people on the South coast of Australia for many years contemporarily puts them into opposition to the government due to legislation in the fishing industry. The industrial overexploitation of sea resources has motivated the government to impose limitations and issue licenses for fishing lobsters and abalone. It intervened with almost a 1000-year aboriginal fishing tradition, pushed native Australians from their natural habitats, and put restrictions on their inherent rights and freedoms.
Aboriginal cultural fishing is a term devised by the government in order to distinguish the marine activity of native Australian people. According to the Fisheries Management Act of 1994, it relates to “fishing activities and practices carried out by Aboriginal persons for the purpose of satisfying their personal, domestic or communal needs, or for educational or ceremonial purposes or other traditional purposes” (Department of Primary Industries, n.d.). In addition, the Act stresses that cultural fishing does not have any commercial purpose (Department of Primary Industries, n.d.). Through this definition, the government has put a “cultural” label on native Australians, correlating them with their traditional marine activities.
Fishing traditions have naturally evolved in Australian aboriginal communities due to their proximity to the sea and its resources. Living on the coast, they had to adapt to their environment, exploiting the possibilities it provided. Consequently, fishing has become part of natives’ lives – they improved their marine technologies and grew accustomed to this stable food source (90% of total food resources) (Australian Indigenous community, n.d.). Eventually, custom practices attained a specific form of ritualism through increased spirituality and emphasis on the human connection and duty to the land. Thus, aboriginal survival rights have slowly evolved into their inherent land rights as generations continued their practices and took care of their surroundings.
Unfortunately, everything changed in the colonial era when white people came to the continent. They treated the land and sea in a completely different way – as commodities and sources of profit (Australian Indigenous community, n.d.). Colonists brought new rules and the law, turning native cultural practices of care and duty toward their environment into a crime (Australian Indigenous community, n.d.). Consequently, aboriginal Australians have lost indigenous fishing rights and inherent land rights due to the government’s superiority. Nowadays, despite the governmental effort to regulate the problem, natives are deemed criminals for their cultural practices. However, who is the true criminal in this situation remains uncertain.
References
Australian Indigenous community. (n.d.). The Indigenous News Conference [Course handout].
Department of Primary Industries. (n.d.). Cultural fishing. NSW Government. Web.