Dead Horse Gap: Intergenerational Justice and the Culling of Horses in the Australian Alps

Conflict over the number of feral horses in Australia's Alpine national parks is a local example of how contested notions of cultural inheritance can impact an ecosystem, and the conditions in which it will be handed down to future generations of plants, animals and humans. This essay uses John Frow's discussion of intergenerational justice to think through the stakes of conflict over the culling of wild horses (otherwise known as feral horses or brumbies) in the Australian Alps. It discusses questions of responsibility, stewardship, damage and reparation in relation to settler-colonial damage to First Nations country and the plants and animals that constitute it, and considers the ethics of hiking in Australian national parks as a form of walking, and thinking, through damage.