kaylarunya

ATTENTION Hon Gavin Pearce MLC, Minister for Primary Industries and Water

It may well take some outside the box thinking, BUT there is a method available to control Black Swan populations in Tasmania. In part it has worked for thousands of years in lutruwita / Tasmania. The now passed Uncle Rex Greeno told of his grandfather teaching him about 'SWANeggs', how to collect them, when and why. It is deeply embedded palawa / pakana CULTURALknowledge and it was/is effective.

Albeit belatedly, Tasmania might well listen to the wisdom that is there to be listened to!

Why are swans a problem to farmers? For instance like geese they poo a lot. Geese defecate daily, pooping multiple times an hour, or over 100 times a day, and producing about 1 to 2 pounds of feces per bird daily. Unlike chickens or ducks, geese don't have a gizzard, so they eat and defecate continuously throughout the day. In many landscapes geese are unwelcome due to their poo output but are welcome in some place because of their grazing of unwanted plants.

Nevertheless, because they are ‘grazers’ they poo on pastures. More to the point they compete with hard hoofed animals in their grazing, so they are deemed to be unwelcome on grazing land.

That’s ignoring the fact that they graze on plants growing in waterways and IF they did not these plants would constitute another problem.

Black swans defecate daily, producing a significant amount of waste: a single swan produces about 52 grams of dry-weight faeces per day. This daily defecation results in a notable accumulation of swan faeces, particularly in areas where large flocks are present, leading to increased levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and microbial indicators like E. coli in the environment.  

Black swans, like other birds, have a highly efficient digestive system and a cloaca that expels solid waste (feces) and liquid waste (urates) simultaneously. Their high food intake, coupled with the continuous movement of their digestive tract and the need for quick elimination, contributes to their frequent defecation.

It needs to be understood that the palapa/pakan method of kaylarunya /swan management/exploitationj involves collecting the eggs for food as was also the case for wayaluk /emu. The wayaluk coexisted in lutruwita / Tasmania for thousands of years because, arguably they were 'husband /farmed' as Bruce Pascoe somewhat contentiously reminded settler cum colonist  Australians in his book DARK EMU. Post Europen settlement the wayaluk /emu went extinct because the settlers predated upon them until there were none and it took but two generations to do so.

The case for Eurocentric Tasmania being unenlightened in a LANDliteracy context is compelling and it is in every way premeditated ignorance. There is no hiding from the fact that Eurocentric Tasmania is despoiling the CULTURALlandscape and it is diminishing.

In the 'careing professions' we expect and receive Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) from our carers. UPR is the non-judgmental acceptance and support of a person, regardless of their actions, words, or choices. Developed by Carl Rogers, UPR is a core principle of client-centered therapy, aiming to create a safe space for individuals to be vulnerable and accept themselves.

UPR involves recognising a person's inherent worth and providing them with acceptance to foster their own self-acceptance and growth.  If we are to regard the places we depend upon to provide us with sustenance, shelter and security with UPR, rather than as a resource for relentless exploitation these places will reward us in the way they have for FIRSTnations people wherever they are found on the planet.

If we are to live sustainably in lutruwita / Tasmania we need to be LANDliterate and pay closer attention to the cultural sensibilities adhered to by palawa / pakana people for millennia given the examples they set in place. We do not need to be demonstrating our mindless stupidity in the wonton shooting of juvenile kaylarunya /swan to manage their population. This 'culling' is as as diminishing as it is pointless

lutruwita / Tasmania is no exception and indeed Eurocentric settler exploitation has been relentless and diminishing as resources are used up for the benefit of colonial and industrial people elsewhere.

All that said, there is a way forward and it would/should involve engaging with Tamania' palawa / pakana people and licensing them to collect kaylarunya /swan eggs for food along with other birds eggs such as Cape Baronn Geese, gulls, ducks and trayapana /native hens where population management is required.

Such a strategy would aviod the pointless and dystopian practice of shooting birds that  Eurocentric Tasmania has deemed them to be 'pests' because they compete in a CULTURALlandscape that affords them no space and ignores their placedness.

There are win-wins to be had and there much wisdom in words that tell us that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. For the sake of a sustainable and equitable lutruwita / Tasmania the need is to be LANDliterate and to arrive at that 'literacy' cooperatively and collaboratively as the people of Kerala did in the 1970s [ Links 1, 2, 3 ] and the examplar that they set in place via Australia via LANDCARE.

Minister, let there be no mindless and irrelevant shooting of kaylarunya /swan and let us start an inclusive and productive conversation between all those who have UPR for lutruwita / Tasmania.

LANDliterate people in lutruwita / Tasmania might well share their thoughts with:

Hon Gavin Pearce MLC <gavin.pearce@parliament.tas.gov.au>;

Hon Bridget Archer MP <bridget.archer@parliament.tas.gov.au>

Hon Anit Dow <anita.dow@parliament.tas.gov.au>;

Hon Craig Garland <craig.garland@parliament.tas.gov.au> ;

Hon Peter George <peter.george@parliament.tas.gov.au>;

Hon Janie Finlay <janie.finlay@parliament.tas.gov.au>;

Michael Mancell <launceston@tacinc.com.au>;

Hon Rosalie Woodruff <rosalie.woodruff@parliament.tas.gov.au>;

Hon Vica Bayley <vica.bayley@parliament.tas.gov.au>;