Invasive Species Council

Canadian Museum of Nature announces winners of the 2023 Nature Inspiration Awards

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Friday, November 17, 2023
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OTTAWA, Nov. 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian Museum of Nature announced the winners of its national Nature Inspiration Awards at special gala Thursday.

Key Points: 
  • OTTAWA, Nov. 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian Museum of Nature announced the winners of its national Nature Inspiration Awards at special gala Thursday.
  • The 2023 awards covered seven categories: Youth (aged 17 and younger), Adult, Not-for-Profit (small to medium), Not-for-Profit (large), Sustainable Business, Community Action and Lifetime Achievement.
  • “Ten years of the Nature Inspiration Awards confirm there’s an abundance of inspiring ways that Canadians are working to maintain a healthy natural world,” says Dr. Danika Goosney, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature.
  • Winners receive $5,000 that they can ”pay forward” to a nature-related program of their choice, or reinvest into their project or initiative.

The brumby debate will never be settled until we face the role horses played in colonisation

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Tuesday, October 17, 2023
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Neither a heritage listing in 2018 nor the 2021 Management Plan brought the issue to a close.

Key Points: 
  • Neither a heritage listing in 2018 nor the 2021 Management Plan brought the issue to a close.
  • The horse-human partnership has existed for around 4,000 years, and humans and horses share a co-evolutionary history.
  • Horses, we are often told, have a special connection with the Australian character and are part of our national psyche.

Horses and colonisation

    • Horses were crucial to the colonisation of this land.
    • Richard Swain (Wiradjuri) is an ambassador for the Invasive Species Council and a founding member of Reclaim Kosci, an organisation that seeks to raise awareness about the impacts of feral horses and create support for their humane reduction.
    • He has been targeted in racist attacks from the pro-horse lobby, including being threatened with the “colonial experience”.
    • Read more:
      Feral horses will rule one third of the fragile Kosciuszko National Park under a proposed NSW government plan

A symbol of belonging

    • Compare horses with camels.
    • Camels are culturally and historically significant for Arab peoples, yet here they are routinely culled without a second thought.
    • Despite their long history in Australia, camels are associated with Asia and the Middle East and seen as exotic and foreign.

An evolving conversation

    • Beyond the wild horses, an understanding and acceptance of this element of our dark colonial history may also better enable us to embrace reconciliation.
    • Read more:
      If The Man from Snowy River is Indigenous, what does that mean for our national myth-making?