Competing with Kim Kardashian: Golden Bandicoots for #BlackFriday

It’s #FloraAndFaunaFriday but also #BlackFriday, another day of marketing gimmickry when the algorithms shout louder than our wildlife. Today, Australia will spend millions chasing celebrity perfumes and cut-price jewellery. Meanwhile, the living things that actually define us - our native plants and animals - are slipping further and further from view.

Back in 2014 on Matuwa Country in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia, I was lucky enough to hold this Golden Bandicoot. It nipped my hand. I kept scratching to the scab off so it would leave a scar as a reminder. And, I’ll confess, I didn’t wash my hands for days. I didn’t want to lose the unique and precious scent of this musky little marsupial. I kept thinking about how it was so much rarer than diamonds. We dig up diamonds, iron ore, coal and gas like there’s no tomorrow, but how many of us could name this animal, let alone recognise it?

Australia leads the world in mammal extinctions, and more than a dozen of our mammals are rarer than China’s giant panda. Yet we all know who Kim Kardashian is. That says something about our attention, and what it rewards.

The Golden Bandicoot is one of ten Australian bandicoot species, half of which are officially listed as threatened with extinction. Three more Australian bandicoot species are already extinct. The Golden Bandicoot once lived across much of arid Australia. Now it persists only on a handful of islands, fenced sanctuaries and places cared for by Traditional Owners and rangers. Its story is a mirror: when we give Country a chance - protect habitat, remove feral cats and foxes, manage fire properly - life returns. When we don’t, it doesn’t.

Black Friday offers us a choice about value. We can follow Kim Kardashian and chase another perfume or gadget we don’t need, or we can back the things we can’t replace. If you want something truly exclusive, try the smell of a Golden Bandicoot - or the sight of one darting through spinifex at dusk. That’s luxury.

What you can do (today, not someday)

• Learn five names of Australian species you couldn’t name yesterday. Start with the Golden Bandicoot.

• Redirect a “deal”: donate the value of at least one purchase to people protecting Country - First Nations ranger programmes, or local conservation groups.

• Vote and speak for strong nature laws and habitat protection. Extinction is a policy choice before it’s a biological one.

• Share a story of a species you love. Attention is a habitat too - let’s refill it.

If we can make celebrities out of consumption, we can make heroes out of bandicoots, numbats and wallabies. This #BlackFriday, I’m competing with Kim Kardashian for Australia’s attention - and I’m backing the Golden Bandicoot.

Gregory Andrews holding a Golden Bandicoot at Matuwa in WA.