Brumbies, settler-colonial heritage and anxieties of belonging
Abstract
This chapter explores this conjunction of politics and heritage using the passing of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act (2018), and the heritage framing of the feral horses of Australia’s Alpine region, as a case study. Examining the ongoing political machinations surrounding the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act (2018), from the realm of legislature and governance to the identity politics that underpin it, I argue that the heritage status ascribed to the brumbies can be simultaneously located within Laurajane Smith’s (2006) construction of an Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD), and the ongoing practice of settler-colonialism in Australia. The case study of the brumby-as-heritage presented in this chapter demonstrates how successful appeals to heritage seemingly grounded at the community level are, on closer examination, aligned with the dominant cultural hegemony of the AHD, while illustrating the growing tension between popular and scholarly understandings of heritage. This points to a broader issue for the field, as legislative instruments increasingly reflect populist rather than critical scholarly views. The brumby example-where the significance of the horse is positioned entirely within settler-colonial culture and constructions of feral horses as culturally significant refer specifically to a rural, white, Anglo-European identity-demonstrates how government processes can be co-opted by populist discourses, and the interests of the few can be protected at the expense of the many, under the rubric of community heritage.