Recording available here

Overview:

Australia has a new government promoting a new economy transitioning to renewable energy and net zero decarbonisation, while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity conservation and ensuring Indigenous heritage protection. The challenge for First Nations people will be to gain beneficial outcomes from this progressive agenda. 

In this seminar I argue that First Nations people are potentially in a powerful position and are already mobilising politically with several new alliances including the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network, a voice for the indigenous carbon sector; Country Needs People, and other groups advocating for ranger groups and Indigenous Protected Areas; the First Nations Clean Energy Network oversighting the development of a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy; and the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance leading a process to reform heritage protection laws.  

At a time when the Australian government is committed to achieving net zero emissions, its challenge is to recognise and accept that decarbonisation will not happen without the participation of First Nations people and their lands. To decarbonise, Australia needs to decolonise, through a practice of what Moana Jackson, the late Māori constitutional lawyer, called ‘ethical restoration’. Decarbonisation will require a devolution of power to First Nations landholders and proper remuneration for work undertaken in biodiversity conservation, the renewables sector, and in the avoidance and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, decolonisation will require self-determining decision making to decide the forms of land management and development on First Nations lands and beyond.