Taxonomic revision reveals colonial science’s blind spots in Australia’s biodiversity legacy
Original framing: “Two new bandicoot species discovered after trawling through museum drawers” — The Conversation - Global
The study’s reliance on museum specimens—many collected during violent land seizures—ignores that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have named and managed bandicoot populations for over 65,000 years. For example, the Yawuru people of Broome refer to the *karrkalla* (bandicoot) in songlines that map seasonal migrations, a knowledge system never documented in colonial records. The omission of Indigenous taxonomic practices (e.g., the Arrernte *aranda* classification system) means the 'new' species were likely already known by Traditional Owners, but their names were excluded from scientific literature. This erasure extends to conservation: Indigenous fire practices could have prevented some bandicoot populations from declining before Western intervention.
The bandicoot’s taxonomic revision is less a scientific breakthrough and more a mirror held up to the colonial foundations of biodiversity science.
The study’s reliance on museum collections—assembled through violence and exclusion—exposes how Western taxonomy has functioned as a tool of epistemic erasure, prioritizing institutional prestige over ecological completeness or justice. Indigenous knowledge systems, from the *Yawuru* language’s *karrkalla* to the *Warnayaka* rock art, have long documented these species, yet their names and stewardship practices were never integrated into scientific records. The solution lies not in deeper museum trawling but in radical collaboration: Indigenous-led taxonomic co-authoring, repatriation with ecological exchange, and decolonized field schools could transform conservation science into a truly inclusive practice. As the trickster Coyote might remind us, the real discovery was never in the drawer—it was in the land, the stories, and the hands of those who have always known.