Dear Gunnar
Obviously you know nothing about me or you wouldn't be calling me
xenophobic or my remarks insulting to Italians.
Italian fishermen in the Top End of the Northern Territory were
prosecuted for catching small birds including Yellow Chat. The late John
McKean, a birder well-known to many on this list, was called upon to
testify at one trial that I know of.
The NT Conservation Commision probably wouldn't have minded if these
fishermen had only taken the occasional few birds, but many were killed.
And they WERE cooking them up with tomatoes and onions. The little birds
replaced the mincemeat, understandable considering that the men probably
weren't equipped to shoot buffalo and there are no shops, butcher or
otherwise, on the remote down-reaches of the Mary River. Plus these men
told the rangers they preferred the flavour of the small birds to that of
ducks.
These Italian men weren't the only ones to kill birds. A well-known
biologist once told me that he and his mates out bush set out to try
every Top End native bird. And one of the reasons emu and a few other
birds are scarce in the Top End is that they're hunted. Every time such a
bird raises its head on my Aboriginal relatives' country it is at risk.
I eat a lot of things that many of European extraction, would regard as
weird. As my older (Aboriginal) sister, Esther Managku once said to my
daughter after a meal of goanna and long yam, 'My Dada (younger sister)
she eat anything!' I don't care what others eat although in Australia I
would prefer if people tucked into kangaroo to beef and lamb because of
the environmental damage that cattle and sheep cause. However with small
birds it was the quantity taken that was of concern.
Nowhere in my email did I write that 'Italians don't care about birds'.
Many do - as a specialist guide I've run trips for Italian birdwatchers.
And I understand that other Mediterranean peoples hunt birds - my
ex-husband was a birding guide in Greece.
By the same token many Territorians don't really give a damn about birds.
As individuals they'd never want to harm one, but they're happy to
bulldoze habitat or graze cattle and buffalo that do incredible damage to
fragile grasslands and ground-dwelling birds. I think I'd rather such
people ate the birds and left the country intact.
Yours sincerely
Denise
Denise Goodfellow (Lawungkurr Maralngurra)
Follow these direct links to my work on the web:
Four Short Stories
http://www.2DocStock.com/shortstories/Index.html
Birds of Darwin Sketches
HYPERLINK http://www.2DocStock.com/BirdsDarwin/Index.html
http://www.2DocStock.com/BirdsDarwin/Index.html
Birding & Natural History in the Far North
http://www.earthfoot.org/places/au002.htm
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