Australian Meeting Places: Aboriginal and Western Ecological Philosophies | Rebecca Garcia Lucas

Summary: Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe | Rebecca Garcia Lucas The philosophical affinity between Aboriginal Law (thousands of years old) and Western ecophilosophy (a few decades old) holds unique potential to develop shared ways of knowing which inform everyday life practices in Australia. Understanding the land as the living community we belong to could guide an intercultural eco-epistemology, a reconciliatory identity, and would be an important part of reconsidering attitudes which have lead to Earth’s ecological crisis. Although Aboriginal philosophy seems to have already done what Western ecophilosophy is only just exploring, joint dialogue is essential for addressing many social and environmental problems of Western modernity. Aboriginal Law holds incomparable knowledge about the connections humans have with Country. Environmental philosophy has emerged from a long tradition of Western thought and culture, and contributes perspectives necessary for bringing a practiced eco- epistemology into a Western urban lifestyle. In what ways can these ecological philosophies work together towards a common ethical relationship with Country? Rebecca lectures at Trinity College and the Arts Faculty, the University of Melbourne. She teaches subjects for the Bachelor of Arts (Extended) program for Indigenous students, and ‘Australian Environmental Philosophy’ in Australian Indigenous Studies.