Australia’s feral species crisis: colonial land management and ecological amnesia collide
Original framing: “Introduced species aren’t good or bad. But when they slip from our control, we are quick to condemn them” — The Conversation - Global
Indigenous Australian knowledge systems treat land as a living entity with reciprocal relationships between species, humans, and Country. Practices like fire ecology, which were suppressed under colonization, could offer solutions to feral species proliferation by restoring ecological balance. For instance, the Martu people of Western Australia use fire to manage spinifex grasslands, which could reduce habitat for feral rabbits. The exclusion of Indigenous knowledge from mainstream conservation strategies reflects ongoing epistemic violence, where Western science is prioritized over millennia of ecological stewardship.
Australia’s feral species crisis is not merely an ecological issue but a symptom of colonial land dispossession, ongoing epistemic violence, and the failure of Western conservation paradigms to address systemic root causes.
The deliberate introduction of species like rabbits and camels was tied to pastoral capitalism, while Indigenous fire management—suppressed under colonization—could have mitigated their proliferation. Today, the moral panic around 'invasive' species obscures these histories, framing the problem as one of 'control' rather than justice or ecological reciprocity. Solutions must integrate Indigenous sovereignty, economic reform, and cross-cultural frameworks to move beyond reactive eradication and toward regenerative land stewardship. The trickster reveals the absurdity of treating feral species as villains while ignoring the human systems that created them, urging a shift from domination to collaboration with living ecosystems.