“There are two relationships, one between land and one between people. The question is one of a custodial ethic, of looking after land that becomes the core of what kind of society you have…the big one is the law of obligation, we are obliged to look after the land and each other.”
Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Graham
Webinar 1: The Common Ground
Keynote speaker
This has to be the foundation of our stewardship of country, with priority for support for country on ethical and pragmatic grounds. We must be looking to the long term, and thinking strategically. A society with a custodial ethic must do this. From this perspective, short-term tactics are of less consequence: it is important to keep the big picture in mind. Our identity needs to be embedded in land and sea and defined by their relationships to them and to other people.
We need to generate a sense of ‘country’ in the community so that ‘country’ is always the first consideration in our decisions and actions. We need a desire to thrive as our paramount consideration, with a goal of increased and continuing abundance of natural resources.
Many of our existing laws, practices and institutions will hamper achieving these aspirations, so we must change them.
