There are democracies in the landscape

I argue that dominant conceptions of democracy are fundamentally human-centric and fail to account for the landscapes, peoples, and pragmatic realities from which collective life emerges. Drawing on observations from the Uluru landscape and informed by Anangu understandings of their Tjukurpa, I aver that democracies exist within the landscape itself, rooted in the interconnectedness of all beings and the land. Employing an ethn/etho-logy method to study human/non-human sociability, I examine the controversial case of Arabian Camels who live on Uluru’s red, spinifex, landscape. My argument contrasts colonial views, which often frame Camels as pests, with Anangu perspectives and certain cultural perspectives that are foreign to the Continent many call Australia that accord the Camel respect and sometimes view them as sacred. A democracy rationalised from this landscape, which I term a type of red democracy, is defined by the absence of human authority and a requirement of living with, not over, beings and the land, which requires respect for all. Actions like state-sanctioned Camel extermination are presented as examples of tyranny violating this principle. My essay concludes in saying that it is only in seeing democracy as symptomatic of the land, and by rationalising democracy with the life entangled with that land (human and non), that we can approach solutions to problems, like the Camel, with more empathy and, I hope, without destructive tyranny.