Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell

by Tyson Yunkaporta

from the old days when they used to burn the heather. On heather country, this low shrub is the dominant species and stretches as far as the eye can see. The people who cared for those landscapes came to be known as ‘heathen’ and were gradually removed, converted to Christianity or exterminated. The heather has been burnt off in the right season by humans for so many thousands of years that it has evolved to need smoke for the germination of its seeds. Not many of the seeds sprout without that, so the heather country is gradually dying out these days. The reptiles, insects and amphibians needed for the functioning of the system are dying out too, and some species of birds have disappeared altogether from Michel’s region. This has been explained as a nitrogen-surplus problem in the soil, although the addition of calcium to offset this has not changed the situation. It has also been suggested that pesticides have killed all the insects, leaving the birds with nothing to eat. The birds there (some Dr Seuss–sounding language name I have no hope of deciphering) disappeared decades ago when the traditional burning stopped, and Michel is not settling for a linear explanation with a culprit to sue. He thinks it’s more complex than that. He says that heather smoke is a seasonal signal for beetles and spiders to return to the heather to lay their eggs, which will hatch in time for the baby birds to feast—not all of the heather is burnt, only the dry undergrowth. If that undergrowth ...