Chase, 1981:

"In the case of the exploitation of a "traditional" resource, the actual behaviour of capture is but one small part of a highly complex system of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes which relate the resources to a wider structure of people and environments.  This often involves the mythological past and elements from it which still continue.

That adoption of European equipment does not mean that the system of beliefs, etc., has lost force, nor does it mean that particular resources is automatically exploited at a higher level than would have occurred before European influence.  At a time when Aboriginal cultures are beset with pressures to change in directions which Europeans think fit, activities such as dugong hunting may have far greater significance than mere food gathering.

Along the eastern Cape York Peninsula for example, it included reefs, cays, terrestrial islands, sandbars and estuaries, rivers, swamps and highly complex plant communities containing hundreds of food-producing species.  All of these were, and still are, inhabited by a staggering range of animal life.

Of all the animals hunted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, the dugong is the largest in size.  The quality of its flesh is seen as belonging to the highest-valued category of food, and its capture means a windfall of meat unequalled by other species.  This fact is no doubt related to the importance of the dugong in the culture of many coastal peoples.  Along the coast of eastern Cape York, for example, there are many totemic sites connected with the creation myths of dugong, and human burial sites marked by piles of dugong bones.

Resource exploitation cannot be seen simply as a function of the efficiency of a particular set of techniques and tools.  Having the equipment and the environmental knowledge regarding dugong behaviour does not necessarily mean that dugongs will be exploited maximally in terms of protein demands.  Other factors in the area of beliefs and attitudes are involved.  For example, in parts of Cape York dugongs could be approached, killed and eaten only be older initiated men.  For women, youths and children even to be in contact with water which had dugong grease floating on it meant that they would become very ill.  People in these categories could not even touch equipment to be used in hunting dugong for fear that illness and misfortune would result.

Indigenous cultural knowledge is extensive and complex, relating human society, environments and animals to mythological figures and forces."    

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Citation and/or URL

Chase, A., 1981, Dugongs and Australian Indigenous cultural systems:  Some introductory remarks.  In:  The Dugong.  Proceedings of a Seminar/Workshop held at James Cook University of North Queensland 8-13 May 1979.  Edited by Helene Marsh, Department of Zoology, James Cook University of North Queensland.  

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Northern Australia

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Marine and intertidal cultural heritage sites in the Great Barrier Reef

Totems, Stories and Ceremonies