Tyson Yunkaporta on how the 'wrong story' harms nature, and how we can change it

Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta (Apalech clan (Wik) Lostmob Nungar) joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail the Aboriginal perspectives behind his latest book, Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. The book explains how stories shape society, how they can harm us and the environment, and how they may save our species and the natural world.

Yunkaporta explains how Indigenous laws, systems and lore can help us improve modern society, specifically in how humans relate first to the land, then to each other, and why this shapes how we exploit nature and care for it.

Identifying the "wrong story" is critical, Yunkaporta explains, to correcting harmful behaviors or ways of governing. Ultimately, it's a lie, he says. Personified by what he characterizes as narcissistic or selfish behavior, it's generally seen by those who exploit the natural world at the expense of community well-being.

"It's a terrible thing to … misrepresent things, make false claims, bear false witness in a way that is bending story, the story that everybody follows. The narratives that people tell that weave together to make a community and to hold a community on the right path that's sustainable for thousands of years."

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Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Image Credit: Mt. Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, captured March 16, 2022. Image courtesy of Planet Labs PBC.

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Timecodes

(00:00) What is 'Wrong Story'?

(14:26) The 'Sacred Mind'

(17:54) First Law

(27:24) The environment and Wrong Story

(38:13) The tale of Tidalik the frog

(42:28) Totems and kinship

(47:06) Serpent law