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

• 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?