Indigenous Harvests
From EnvironmentWiki
--Nichole Hoskin 21:15, 27 June 2008 (EST)
Indigenous Harvesting:
Aboriginal people managed kangaroo populations and utilised kangaroos as a resource for meat and skins. According to Pople and Grigg, “kangaroos were the principle animal group exploited consistently by Aborigines, with a single animal feeding several people, and providing materials for rugs and clothes.”[1] There is evidence that hunting methods included spearing, clubbing and herding into traps, with larger animals usually hunted individually.[2] There is also evidence that the Aboriginal use of fire to manage land provided more grazing areas and promoted new growth, which favoured kangaroos.[3] While fire management of land favoured kangaroos, this practice also favoured Aboriginal hunters since “increases in populations of large kangaroos may have been balanced partly by the provision of easier, more open, hunting grounds.”[4]
References
1. Tony Pople and Gordon Grigg, Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Chapter 5, p 1.
2. Tony Pople and Gordon Grigg, Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Chapter 5, p 1.
3. Tony Pople and Gordon Grigg, Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Chapter 5, p 1.
4. Tony Pople and Gordon Grigg, Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Chapter 5, p 1.
Related Links
Regulation of Commercial Harvesting
