Receiving Traditional Knowledges is a gift, not a right
It is important for researchers to manage their expectations regarding receiving Traditional Knowledges as Indigenous peoples in Australia continue to recover from intergenerational traumas stemming from historic, and often continuing, colonial practices. Academic Australia has a largely British, or otherwise Euro-centric, history that includes the reverence of humans above all else. Although Indigenous Australians greatly revere the remains of Old People (ancestors), Indigenous genomics in Australia encompasses the entirety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connectedness to land, flora, and fauna. Akarre Elder Margaret Kemarre Turner (Order of the Medal of Australia) demonstrates this as “The Land is us, and we are the Land.” (Turner & McDonald, 2010, p. 15). The relationships between Land and Indigenous peoples are not abstract, they are tangible and meaningful.
Indigenous Australians have rules surrounding their Country’s biota, dictated through lore and stories, which often relate to the breeding and hunting seasons as well as other aspects of care for totem animals (Raven, Robinson, & Hunter, 2021; Robinson & Raven, 2020; Steffensen, 2020, p. 95). Indeed, an emu is as much an ancestor as Old People are, though the strength of this connectedness may depend on an individual’s familial lines (Raven et al., 2021). Aunty Margaret Kemmareteaches that Aboriginal lore requires plants be respected for stories, food and medicine and that some trees are considered to have become human (Turner & McDonald, 2010, pp. 156-161). These kinship ties integrate obligations to care for Country in perpetuity, in the past, present, and future, and the meaning of which varies with each Nation as they do with the landscape (Raven et al., 2021; Robinson & Raven, 2020). SedaDNA could be utilised by Indigenous peoples to connect oral histories with modern science. Much Traditional Knowledge however, has been repressed and consequently, the continued research on Indigenous peoples, plants and animals is likely to perpetuate harmful colonial narratives, regardless of researchers’ intent (Z. Roberts, 2022). Balancing the potential for sedaDNA research with the risk to harm Indigenous peoples can only be done with direct input and control from Traditional Owners.
Considering the responsibilities of Indigenous peoples in caring for Country is important for researchers that undertake genomic analyses in Australia, where they reasonably encounter all aspects of Indigenous genomics. Like the people who inhabit the continent, the Australian landscape is diverse, from red desert to snowy mountains and even the “oldest surviving rainforest in the world” (P. Roberts et al., 2021). Consequently, land management by Indigenous peoples differs between Nations along with specialised ways of knowing, learning and being (Raven et al., 2021). The interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples and the land they have responsibility for has developed over thousands of generations and the health of the land is so entwined with the health of the people that one cannot be separated from the other (Raven et al., 2021; Robinson & Raven, 2020; Turner & McDonald, 2010, pp. 114, 115). Therefore, when considering Indigenous sedaDNA work, due respect is owed to the biota from across the tree of life that leave their DNA traces in the sediment. As a direct practical consequence, it is paramount to balance CARE and FAIR principles (Carroll, Herczog, Hudson, Russell, & Stall, 2021) when disseminating sedaDNA data.
In such an area, where efforts are made to understand Traditional Knowledges, non-Indigenous researchers may become frustrated at the hesitancy of Indigenous peoples to share their stories, particularly as they relate to ecological, or otherwise non-human entities. But remembering that sediments should be treated with full recognition of their Indigeneity, respecting the sovereignty of Traditional Owners in decision making means they have the right to retain or otherwise mediate the dispersal of that Knowledge (potentially applying Bio-Cultural and Traditional Knowledge label systems (Mc Cartney et al., 2022). Research that engages with, but does not dominate or claim ownership of, Traditional Knowledges will not only improve the ethical standing of the researcher but improve research outcomes through a more holistic understanding of species history.