lorne wrote:
>
> Hello folks, it's Lorne again.
>
> I was rather pissed off/angry this morning when a colleague/teacher at
> school told me she was using 'muttonbird' oil to help her hands (mild
> arthritis I think). I asked her about the killing of birds, and she
> said
> that aborigines did it and they were the only ones who could kill
> them.
> This is the first I've really heard of this oil and aboriginal link.
> Can
> anyone tell me more???? I'm distressed.
>
> Lgj.
>
> PS - A while ago I had WORDS with this person who was selling Emu oil
> at
> a booth in a shopping centre. She said it was a fact of life. I
> disagreed. She said she didn't really agree with killing emus. I told
> her to get another job!!!!!!!!
RE: MUTTONBIRD OIL
If it weren't for the considerable value of the muttonbird trade, many
more of the Bass Strait Islands would have been cleared and settled for
sheep and cattle, and there would be unpoliced slaughter of the birds
for craybait. Sustainable harvesting for squabs is, I believe, morally
OK. Locally made sleepingbags used to have pervasive if slight whiff of
muttonbird down. For info on aboriginal link, read Patsy Adam Smith's
'Moonbird people' and 'There was a ship'.
ANTHEA FLEMING
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