I drew this after hearing about the dingo pack on K’gari that got killed for being “aggressive”. Because apparently we’re shocked when wild animals behave like wild animals.
Dingoes are native animals. They have been apart of this land and country a lot longer than white colonists, yet the descendants of those colonists have the gall to claim that they’re “introduced pests”, while trying to claim they have more right to the land than the First Nations people.
The Butchulla people had a defined difference between the “camp dingo” (Wat’dha) and the “wild dingo” (Wongari). And when they were driven off their island by colonists, the Wat’dha became Wongari.
Yet, despite the Butchulla people being able to live on their island once more, the scars of colonialism still run deep. The Butchulla were not consulted on what to do about the “aggressive” Wongari after the death of a Canadian backpacker. The Queensland government killed the Wongari to appease the “owners” of campgrounds and hotels. They killed the Wongari to pacify ignorant tourists and “encourage” more tourists to visit.
Yet this sort of brutal and outdated “management” does more harm than good. It creates a territory vacuum, creating conflict between other packs who now may try to move into that territory. It cuts down genetic diversity of an already vulnerable population and the island knowledge of the adult Wongari that were killed will never be passed onto future offspring.
Unfortunately the violence of colonialism is baked into the story of the Wongari. Tourist dollars and the appearance of “fixing the problem” were prioritised over respecting the Butchulla people’s sovereignty and referring to their deep knowledge of the Wongari.
This was not responsible wildlife management. This was a knee jerk reaction from a trigger happy government to appease those who profit from K’gari.