tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/traditional-owners-29694/articlesTraditional owners – The Conversation2024-02-06T05:02:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223932024-02-06T05:02:52Z2024-02-06T05:02:52ZClimate change will strike Australia’s precious World Heritage sites – and Indigenous knowledge is a key defence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573359/original/file-20240205-25-njg9qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C6%2C4217%2C2837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cezary Wojtkowski, Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From Kakadu to Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef, to Sydney Opera House and the convict sites, <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/world-heritage-list">Australia’s list</a> of World Heritage places is incredibly diverse. Each site represents the culture, nature and history of this land, in its own way. </p>
<p>But climate change threatens these sites. Many heritage values are already being eroded. On-ground managers of these and other protected places need practical guidance on how to understand these impacts and respond effectively. </p>
<p>We developed a <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/publications/climate-change-toolkit-world-properties">climate change “toolkit” for World Heritage properties</a> with site managers and Traditional Owners. To our knowledge, it is the first time such guidance has been co-developed and tested with World Heritage property managers and Indigenous experts in this country.</p>
<p>Bringing climate science and Indigenous knowledge systems together promises to produce better results for heritage protection as the climate changes. And there is no time to waste. We must act fast to address these threats to Australia’s unique and special places of global significance, so their World Heritage values can be enjoyed for generations to come.</p>
<h2>Mounting climate threats to heritage</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110459">Our new research</a> explored climate impacts at three very different sites: </p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/147/">Kakadu National Park</a>, Northern Territory</li>
<li><a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1306">Australian Convict Sites</a>, scattered around the country</li>
<li><a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/167/">Willandra Lakes Region</a>, southwest New South Wales.</li>
</ol>
<p>The vast tropical <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/147/">Kakadu National Park</a> is one of four Australian properties listed for both outstanding cultural and natural values. Cave paintings, rock carvings and archaeological sites date back tens of thousands of years. Tidal flats, floodplains, lowlands and plateaus provide habitat for many rare or endemic plants and animals.</p>
<p>But Kakadu is vulnerable to rising sea levels, leading to coastal erosion and saltwater entering wetlands. The region is also experiencing more extreme temperatures and heatwaves, changing fire regimes, more intense cyclones, and increasingly intense extreme rainfall events. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1306/">Convict Sites</a> consist of 11 properties around Australia. Fremantle Prison lies 5,500km west of Arthur’s Vale Historic Area in the east. The Old Great North Road in the north is 1,500km from the Port Arthur Historic Site in the south.</p>
<p>Many convict sites are on coasts and islands where wave action and sea level rise are increasingly damaging structures, landscapes and cultural materials. Convict sites are also vulnerable to storms and bushfires because the buildings are so old. </p>
<p>The arid <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/167/">Willandra Lakes Region</a> contains fossil remains of a series of lakes and sand formations, along with archaeological evidence of human occupation dating back 45,000–60,000 years.</p>
<p>Hot and dry conditions are causing erosion of topsoil, increasingly exposing Aboriginal cultural heritage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Outback landscape with delicate structures at Red Top lookout, Willandra Lakes, along the large lunette formed by wind and water erosion along a dried up lake" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573669/original/file-20240206-19-5b8ppw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate change is exacerbating erosion at the Willandra Lakes World Heritage site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/outback-landscape-delicate-structures-red-top-794485033">Leah-Anne Thompson, Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-must-be-a-catalyst-for-reform-of-the-world-heritage-system-191798">Climate change must be a catalyst for reform of the World Heritage system</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tapping into deep knowledge</h2>
<p>We worked closely with these sites to develop and test our new toolkit.</p>
<p>An Indigenous Reference Group of Traditional Owners from a number of World Heritage sites in Australia contributed their expert knowledge. This includes practical guidance such as how to engage with and enable Indigenous leadership so Traditional Owners can participate in or lead climate vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning. The toolkit also describes using the right knowledge for the right Country (showing respect for traditional knowledge) and establishing agreements to ensure Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/">are protected</a>.</p>
<p>Effectively addressing climate impacts on World Heritage values requires the deep knowledge, values and worldviews of <a href="https://lcipp.unfccc.int/">Indigenous Peoples and local communities</a>. This includes practices such as cultural burning to reduce the risk of intense bushfire, or cultural knowledge of long-term changes in water cycles. Tapping into this deep understanding of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01153-1">connections between nature and culture</a> can help support the management of spiritual, living landscapes. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1751832543866044903"}"></div></p>
<h2>Adapting to climate change</h2>
<p>World Heritage site managers can take a broad range of practical actions to adapt to climate change. </p>
<p>These actions, such as firefighting or invasive species control, may not be new. They just need to be undertaken more often or intensely. </p>
<p>Other variations on existing actions may include greater emphasis on physical separation between flammable vegetation and assets such as larger firebreaks, or responding to new invasive species, possibly including shifting ranges of invasive native species. </p>
<p>Some new management actions will be required, such as flood protection, relocating assets and new technological interventions. In cases where climate change is likely to lead to changes in the values of a site, there may be a need to reevaluate management objectives and strategies (such as accommodating new groups of organisms or “ecological communities”, letting some populations decline, and managed retreat of shorelines). </p>
<p>There may also be a need to consider vulnerability at different scales, sometimes across larger areas. In some cases, managers may aim to retain certain values across a wider landscape while accepting local change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of Darlington, a convict site on Maria Island, Tasmania, take from some distance away to show all of the buildings together, with trees in the foreground and background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573684/original/file-20240206-17-l01akv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darlington, on Maria Island, Tasmania, is one of 11 properties grouped together under the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage listing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/darlington-historic-settlement-on-maria-island-247616818">David Lade, Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-adaptation-projects-sometimes-exacerbate-the-problems-they-try-to-solve-a-new-tool-hopes-to-correct-that-213969">Climate adaptation projects sometimes exacerbate the problems they try to solve – a new tool hopes to correct that</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Managers, stakeholders and rights-holders of World Heritage sites and other protected places, such as <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/wetlands/australian-wetlands-database/australian-ramsar-wetlands">Ramsar wetlands</a> and <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/nrsmpa-protect.pdf">marine protected areas</a>, can now use the toolkit to plan for current and future climate threats. They can focus on the parts most useful to them, depending on their capacity and needs. Ultimately, this resource will help protect Australia’s cultural and natural heritage.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The following people were members of the Indigenous Reference Group and are coauthors of our research paper: Bianca McNeair, Lance Syme, Chrissy Grant, Nicholas Pedrocchi, Patricia Oakley, Amy Stevens, Denis Rose, Erin Rose, Jade Gould, John Locke and Lynda Maybanks.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Melbourne-Thomas received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Lin received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lance Syme is Principal Archaeologist at Kayandel Archaeological Services, providing cultural heritage and archaeological consulting services throughout New South Wales. He is now working part-time for the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on World Heritage. Funding for the work described in this article came from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mandy Hopkins received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. This led to further support for vulnerability assessments from Budj Bim world heritage property management. </span></em></p>Researchers, managers and Traditional Owners are joining forces to understand and combat climate threats to Australia’s many unique World Heritage sites.Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Transdisciplinary Researcher & Knowledge Broker, CSIROBrenda Lin, Principal research scientist, CSIROLance Syme, Secretariat at the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on World Heritage, Indigenous KnowledgeMandy Hopkins, Adjunct industry fellow, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2148542023-12-28T20:37:19Z2023-12-28T20:37:19Z‘Ecology on steroids’: how Australia’s First Nations managed Australia’s ecosystems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566174/original/file-20231218-29-q9azfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=895%2C0%2C2523%2C1842&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>On October 9 1873, George Augustus Frederick Dalrymple reclined in a boat on the glorious North Johnstone River in the coastal Wet Tropics. Dalrymple was in raptures. A riot of palms, bananas, ferns and lilies descended to the waters edge, and large-leafed taro grew in strips along the riverbank over tens of hectares. He <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2233550">came across a large village</a> with rows of neatly made bark and palm leaf huts. Dappled paths led to managed patches of open forest, groves of fruit trees, bananas and yams. Nearby, a small fleet of moored catamarans sat bobbing.</p>
<p>In the colonial literature, there are many such descriptions of beautiful and bountiful pre-European tropical landscapes. It was clear that people had helped create such a rich paradise <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Bill-Gammage-Biggest-Estate-on-Earth-9781743311325">through their land management</a></p>
<p>By 1886, many rainforest people of tropical north Queensland had been “dispersed” – killed – and swathes of this biodiversity hotspot began being <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Penny-van-Oosterzee-Cloud-Land-9781761068409/">cleared for sugarcane</a>. </p>
<p>First Nations groups such as Australia’s rainforest people had <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257836980_Aborigines_and_Fire_in_the_Wet_Tropics_of_Queensland_Australia_Ecosystem_Management_Across_Cultures">skilfully managed</a> entire ecosystems over the long term, in what has been termed “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/handbook-of-contemporary-animism/death-and-grief-in-a-world-of-kin/F67F7B7A2B9C225A3D5A24446BD3CE4E">ecology on steroids</a>”. These <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Penny-van-Oosterzee-Cloud-Land-9781761068409">future-making</a> methods protected landscapes from climate change and buffered them against extinction. </p>
<p>Australia’s First Nations did this through the cold and dryness of the last ice age, and as the seas rose through the droughts and floods of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38626-3">El Niño Southern Oscillation</a> climate cycle. </p>
<p>As we face an uncertain climate future, it’s valuable to look at how people weathered such change. </p>
<h2>Decoupling landscape from climate change</h2>
<p>When people first came to Australia, the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/486/">Wet Tropics</a> were not wet. The Pleistocene climate was cool and windy, with mega monsoons and long periods of diabolical drought. If you had looked east from what is now Cairns, you would have seen not oceans and coral atolls, but plains and valleys filled with grasslands and forest. The sea lay tens of kilometres off the continental shelf. </p>
<p>The oldest record of human occupation in Australia is found in the Top End. Here, in a magnificent cave system in Arnhem Land, people prepared a meal of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339303242_The_first_Australian_plant_foods_at_Madjedbebe_65000-53000_years_ago">native fruits and processed pandanus</a> using an adaptable toolkit. This meal took place <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">65,000 years ago</a>, when savannah stretched all the way to the island of New Guinea. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map showing how Papua New Guinea and Australia were connected during the last ice age" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559828/original/file-20231116-29-ykschg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When the sea levels were lower, people could walk from Australia to Papua New Guinea. Girraween lagoon is marked on the map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird/Damien O'Grady</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over thousands of years, Australia’s people developed a vibrant cosmology. For First Nations people Country was sentient. The land was not a mindless resource but part of your family – and came with family obligations. Everyone, whether you were human, an animal, a plant, a river, fire, the sky or wind, was closely watched. People were <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">embedded within ecosystems</a>. </p>
<p>Recently scientists <a href="https://ris.cdu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/24523204/Rowe_et_al_2019_Holocene_savanna_dynamics_in_the_seasonal_tropics_of_northern_Australia.pdf">sampled the deep mud</a> of Girraween lagoon in the Top End searching for pollen and charcoal that would provide a window into this deep time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men drilling for scientific samples" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559823/original/file-20231116-25-qdvyok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The deep mud of Girraween lagoon near Darwin is a window into the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird/Damien O'Grady</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some 13,000 years ago, the landscape was parched. But as the northern hemisphere ice sheets melted, the seas rose and the monsoons began to return. By the mid-Holocene, between 9,000 and 4,000 years ago, the monsoons were arriving regularly. The lagoon filled up, nestled in a landscape of moisture-loving shrubs and brushed by relatively cool fires. </p>
<p>But then, the climate lurched to one of the long periods of horrendous drought instigated by an El Nino weather system. </p>
<p>Curiously, destructive fires did not follow. The deep mud core showed fire became less, not more, intense, as the forest shaded out the volatile grasses that cause intense fires in savanna. Even as drought increased, the Top End landscape filled with layers of diverse herbs and shrubs, with a variety of trees and groves of monsoon forest closer to the lagoon. </p>
<p>This patterning was likely the handiwork of people taming fire and putting it to work. Through patch burning, they created a rich landscape of diverse habitat that sustained people and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">created niches</a> for a wide range of species. </p>
<p>Today, a quarter of Australia’s fire-prone savannahs, mostly managed by First Nations peoples, are returning to patchy fire regimes. These reduce the big wildfires associated with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479721006307">European pastoralism</a> and reduce emissions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594">To address the ecological crisis, Aboriginal peoples must be restored as custodians of Country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Extinction busters</h2>
<p>Perhaps few places encapsulate the harshness of Australia’s environment more than the Great Sandy Desert. From before the last ice age, the ancestors of today’s Martu people would have witnessed great floods rushing down the Sturt Creek into an extensive lake system, Paruku (Lake Gregory). These lakes were <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272158856_EXCAVATIONS_AT_PARNKUPIRTI_LAKE_GREGORY_GREAT_SANDY_DESERT">ten times larger than today’s system</a>, ringed by dunes covered in scrubby vegetation and flammable spinifex. </p>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314306369_Aboriginal_mitogenomes_reveal_50000_years_of_regionalism_in_Australia">perhaps 50 millennia</a>, the Martu used fire to create mosaic landscapes. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, the Martu were forced to leave to make way for <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/sources-radiation/more-radiation-sources/british-nuclear-weapons-testing">nuclear missile tests</a>. Without cultural burning, it took <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">mere years</a> for fuel to build up and large wildfires to incinerate the landscape. </p>
<p>You can see the change clearly. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258039276_Niche_construction_and_Dreaming_logic_Aboriginal_patch_mosaic_burning_and_varanid_lizards_Varanus_gouldii_in_Australia">Satellite images and aerial photograhy</a> showed the size of the average fire went from 64 hectares under Martu management to over 50,000 ha by the 1980s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fire patterns in central Australia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559826/original/file-20231116-22-x071ma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic burning reduces fire intensity and promotes fresh growth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefani Crabtree</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In turn, this drove <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">dramatic shifts</a> to the food web. Over the two decades of Martu absence, ten species of small mammal became locally extinct, including the rufous hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, bilby, mulgara and brushtail possum. What’s more, 14 mammals, three birds and two reptiles became threatened. Cats, foxes, camels and buffel grass became widespread. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, the Martu were able to return. Back on Country, they <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330976086_Subsistence_Transitions_and_the_Simplification_of_Ecological_Networks_in_the_Western_Desert_of_Australia">worked with scientists</a> to reconstruct pre-1960s food webs from their memories, recalling not only species hunted, but rich detail of the behaviour, interactions and life histories. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://ministers.pmc.gov.au/burney/2023/celebrating-dedication-martu-indigenous-protected-area">Indigenous Protected Areas</a> covering millions of hectares have been added to the national estate. The Western Desert Martu Ranger program manage <a href="https://www.niaa.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/environment/western-desert-martu-ranger-programme">6.5 million hectares</a>. </p>
<p>This return to First Nations management is long overdue, as human-made climate change intensifies. We will need to relearn these ancient techniques of managing country on a broader scale to cope with the changes to come. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-knowledge-and-the-persistence-of-the-wilderness-myth-165164">Indigenous knowledge and the persistence of the 'wilderness' myth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny van Oosterzee is a Director of Biome5 Pty Ltd which was a linkage partner in an ARC research project on cost-effective restoration for carbon and biodiversity based on her property Thiaki. Penny has recently published a book, Cloud Land, with Allen & Unwin based on the Thiaki restoration project. The book focuses on Australia's Wet Tropics Rainforest and Rainforest peoples.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Hunter is a Djabugay man and chair of Terrain NRM, a natural resources management group.</span></em></p>When people first came to Australia 65,000 years ago, the Earth was in an ice age. Then the seas rose, drought and floods came – and still people endured.Penny van Oosterzee, Adjunct Associate Professor James Cook University and University Fellow Charles Darwin University, James Cook UniversityBarry Hunter, Acting CEO, North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113442023-08-10T23:27:23Z2023-08-10T23:27:23ZThe Kimba nuclear waste plan bites the dust. Here’s what went wrong and how to do better next time<p>The federal government has scrapped plans to build the nation’s first <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/regulation-and-licensing/safety-security-transport/radioactive-waste-disposal-and-storage/radioactive-waste">radioactive waste storage facility</a> on farmland near Kimba in South Australia. Frankly, it was never going to work. The plan was doomed from the start.</p>
<p>That’s because the “decide and defend” model, where a government decides to put radioactive waste somewhere and then attempts to defend it against the community, hasn’t worked anywhere. It hasn’t worked in the United Kingdom. It hasn’t worked in the United States. Those countries still don’t have any process for long-term management of radioactive waste. </p>
<p>The only country to successfully manage the process is Finland, where the community was engaged. Over a period of several years, the government worked with its people to find a place where the community as a whole was happy to have the radioactive waste, in return for compensation. They’re now building a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230613-onkalo-has-finland-found-the-answer-to-spent-nuclear-fuel-waste-by-burying-it">deep underground repository</a> for permanently storing their radioactive waste. </p>
<p>But Australia’s national government has made the same mistake three times now: a proposal in the Woomera area 20 years ago, Muckaty station in the Northern Territory ten years ago and now Napandee near Kimba. Deciding on a site and then trying to defend it against the community doesn’t work. The government really needs to understand this. The only way to manage our radioactive waste is to engage the community from the start. That means the whole community, including the land’s traditional owners.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fr7WP2IsB24?wmode=transparent&start=32" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">No nuclear waste dump for Kimba, South Australia as the federal government formally abandons the plan (ABC News, August 10, 2023)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stacking the deck</h2>
<p>The Federal Court last month <a href="https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2023/2023fca0809">ruled</a> against plans by the former Coalition government to build the Kimba facility, after a court challenge by the traditional owners, the Barngarla people.</p>
<p>The traditional owners had not been consulted – in fact they were specifically excluded from the consultation process. And that’s why the Federal Court overturned the decision. </p>
<p>On Thursday morning, Federal Resources Minister <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/king/media-releases/statement-national-radioactive-waste-management-facility">Madeleine King</a> told the House of Representatives she would not challenge the Federal Court decision. </p>
<p>She described Kimba as “a town divided” and emphasised broad community support would have included “the whole community, including the traditional owners of the land”. </p>
<p>But she also drew attention to flaws in the plan, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The previous Government sought to temporarily store intermediate level radioactive waste on agricultural land and contemplated the double handling of the transport of this waste; first from Lucas Heights in NSW, to temporary storage in SA, then on to an undetermined permanent disposal site. </p>
<p>This approach has raised concerns regarding international best practice and safety standards. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>King noted the amount of radioactive waste will keep growing, and said her department has begun work on alternative proposals.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1689443472326152192"}"></div></p>
<h2>Consulting traditional owners is crucial</h2>
<p>The Barngarla people understandably objected to nuclear waste being imposed on their land without their prior informed consent.</p>
<p>It might have been possible for the federal government to persuade them to accept low-level waste, which is given that classification because it has relatively low levels of radiation. If buried under a few metres of earth, the radiation reaching the surface is not much above normal background levels.</p>
<p>But the decision to use the site for temporary storage of the intermediate level waste from the Lucas Heights reactor in New South Wales was unlikely to get their approval.</p>
<p>And that raises a quite fundamental issue. Anywhere we want to store radioactive waste in Australia is the traditional land of a group of Indigenous people. Given the history of the Menzies government allowing <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/sources-radiation/more-radiation-sources/british-nuclear-weapons-testing">nuclear weapons to be tested</a> here and the impacts that had on Indigenous people, it’s going to be very difficult to persuade Indigenous people to allow the permanent storage of radioactive waste on their land. </p>
<p>If it’s going to happen, it will require a long process of engagement and communication with Indigenous people to find a group somewhere that’s happy to manage the radioactive waste the community is producing.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1681468184220815361"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-long-and-devastating-history-behind-the-proposal-for-a-nuclear-waste-dump-in-south-australia-158615">There's a long and devastating history behind the proposal for a nuclear waste dump in South Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What should happen next?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australias-national-inventory-radioactive-waste-2021">vast majority (97%)</a> of the nuclear waste produced in this country is coming from Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the research reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney. </p>
<p>The idea of shifting intermediate-level waste from Lucas Heights to another temporary store 1,700km away is particularly silly. The waste is quite nasty stuff that requires serious management. There’s no obvious reason it would have been better in a temporary store at Kimba than in the current temporary store of Lucas Heights. </p>
<p>People have accepted it at Lucas Heights. The sensible approach would be to leave it there until we find somewhere people are happy to have it permanently. </p>
<p>In the fine print of the AUKUS agreement, the Australian government has agreed to manage the radioactive waste from nuclear submarines sourced from the UK and the US. That raises a <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-hasnt-figured-out-low-level-nuclear-waste-storage-yet-let-alone-high-level-waste-from-submarines-201781">much more difficult issue</a>. </p>
<p>The Virginia class submarines use highly enriched uranium, which is weapons-grade material. It produces a more complex and intractable set of waste products than what’s produced at Lucas Heights. I’m not sure how many people understand Australia has taken that task on. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-hasnt-figured-out-low-level-nuclear-waste-storage-yet-let-alone-high-level-waste-from-submarines-201781">Australia hasn't figured out low-level nuclear waste storage yet – let alone high-level waste from submarines</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Naturally, anti-nuclear campaigners welcomed this week’s announcement. But they also held out an olive branch to the federal government, recognising the waste problem hasn’t gone away. </p>
<p>The Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Dave Sweeney said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>ACF looks forward to constructive dialogue with the Albanese government to help develop a new and responsible approach to radioactive waste management in Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, Conservation SA chief executive Craig Wilkins said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now that the Kimba plan is officially dumped, the real work can finally begin to find a more credible and respectful approach to identifying a long-term storage and disposal site for Australia’s nuclear waste that is consistent with international best practice.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nU94go_hKfY?wmode=transparent&start=224" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How Finland plans to store uranium waste for 100,000 years (Science Magazine, 2022)</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Lowe was for 12 years a member of the Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council, which advises the regulator of nuclear issues. He was also a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for the South Australia Nuclear Royal Commission. </span></em></p>Now that plans for a national radioactive waste management facility near Kimba in South Australia have been abandoned, what next? Let’s learn from our mistakes.Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2023862023-04-13T20:07:45Z2023-04-13T20:07:45ZConnecting to culture: here’s what happened when elders gifted totemic species to school kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520685/original/file-20230413-22-niu3io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C44%2C4796%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicolas Rakotopare</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, a <a href="https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach2/indigenous_res012_0804.pdf">totem</a> is a spiritual emblem from the natural world, such as a plant or animal. The totem is gifted to an individual by a parent or elder, usually around the time of their birth. Some people have several totems. </p>
<p>The connection is mutually beneficial: the totem is a protector of the person, who in turn shows their respect for the totem by caring for it. </p>
<p>We wanted to find out if totemic species, when gifted to schools by Traditional Custodians, could generate care for threatened species - while also embedding cultural awareness and Indigenous knowledge in the Australian science curriculum. </p>
<p>We ran a <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.12904">pilot program</a> to test the idea and build an evidence base. The program was successful. Care for the totemic species increased and students expressed enthusiasm for this approach. And there were other benefits too.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWLabAlDJOA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Connecting kids with nature and culture: A totemic species for Carlton North Primary School.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-peoples-knowledge-of-mysterious-fairy-circles-in-australian-deserts-has-upended-a-long-standing-science-debate-202956">First Peoples' knowledge of 'mysterious fairy circles' in Australian deserts has upended a long-standing science debate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Caring for the matted flax-lily</h2>
<p>The matted flax-lily (<em>Dianella amoena</em>) is culturally significant to the Wurundjeri people. The berries and leaves are used for food and tea, weaving and making whistles to deter snakes. </p>
<p>But the species is critically endangered in Victoria and listed as <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/recovery-plans/national-recovery-plan-matted-flax-lily-dianella%C2%A0amoena">endangered nationally</a>. After land clearing for urban development, it is thought only <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/dianella-amoena.pdf">1,400 plants remain</a>. </p>
<p>Students in all year levels at Carlton North Primary School in Melbourne worked with Uncle Dave Wandin, a Wurundjeri Elder, to create habitat for the flax-lily and learn about the species. </p>
<p>The program sought to embed both Indigenous and Western knowledge in a balanced and holistic way. Over ten weeks, the biology curriculum addressed sustainability and the environment, incorporating interactive and outdoor activities. </p>
<p>In one activity, students helped to construct a grassland ecosystem habitat with plantings of the flax-lily. Other activities included interactive food web role play, scientific drawing, seed planting, learning about Indigenous land management and the use of native ingredients in modern baking. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Native Australian dianella grass with flowers in a sunny backyard shot at shallow depth of field" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520689/original/file-20230413-20-g0bm7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grassland flax-lily has blue, star-shaped flowers from spring through autumn followed by purple berries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/native-australian-dianella-grass-flowers-plant-2041026290">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting to nature</h2>
<p>We used surveys of students, teachers and parents to understand the outcomes of the program. </p>
<p>After participating in the program, students had a better understanding of the matted flax-lily and its ecology. They also felt more connected with nature and indicated that they had learned about the Traditional Custodians and the importance of the totemic species. One student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I really enjoyed science this term (and) I feel much closer to our Indigenous culture than I ever have.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Students told the lead teachers that they wanted to bring the blue-banded bee back and plant native species in their own gardens: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I never knew about the matted flax-Lily and that it was going extinct and now I’m planning to plant some in my backyard!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers also told us they felt better equipped to teach students about traditional ecological knowledge in a culturally appropriate manner. The main educators in the program thought the approach could be extended to other disciplines, including engineering, art and mathematics.</p>
<p>Parents and guardians also felt positive, referencing their child’s high engagement as well as their own interest in learning more about Indigenous culture and totemic species. One parent stated their child started to ask regularly if they could “plant native plants because of how important they are”. </p>
<p>Students went beyond the project team’s expectations and began to take care of the garden themselves, protecting their species during break times at school, showing the garden to their families and teaching them about the different species within it.</p>
<p>Overall, the program improved student engagement with nature and science. This permeated through to parents and guardians.</p>
<h2>Weaving into the curriculum</h2>
<p>Our research has the potential to improve teaching of Indigenous content across Australia. The program shows how Indigenous science can be embedded into the existing curriculum in a holistic way. </p>
<p>Student engagement with nature and science also increased along with personal feelings of connection and responsibility to the environment. </p>
<p>Additional benefits included the creation of habitat for threatened species. Imagine if every school in Australia contributed in this way to the conservation of biodiversity? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Closeup of a yam daisy or murnong, including the roots, held by a person with beautiful painted nails" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520687/original/file-20230413-24-xts6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The murnong or yam daisy has white tuberous roots that may be eaten raw or baked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicholas Rakotopare</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s also evidence that children playing in biodiverse schoolyards have <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1503402112">improved cognitive function</a> and reduced behavioural issues. Finally, greening our schoolyards can provide a critical <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132317303773">cooling function</a>.</p>
<p>Key to the program’s success was recognition of the time commitment from teachers and Wurundjeri Elders and recompensing them appropriately. This was crucial for facilitating deep involvement. </p>
<p>The school curriculum is already crowded with many competing demands. Expecting that an additional body of material can be incorporated without appropriate time and resources would have been impractical. Likewise, the time and knowledge of Traditional Owners is in high demand, so adequate provision of resources was an important feature of the program. </p>
<p>Further, embedding the material into an existing subject school-wide meant the program did not impose further demands on the curriculum. Instead, it was an efficient and effective way to deliver the material. </p>
<p>This also generated a sense of the topic being “core” to the curriculum, rather than an optional “add-on”. This alignment of the program with existing curriculum and the fact that the budget – while critical - was modest, mean it is entirely feasible to imagine implementation of similar programs in many other schools. </p>
<p>We hope that the <a href="https://icon-science.org/totemic-species/">program will be picked up</a> and implemented in other schools across Australia. Ideally, the concept of totemic species will ultimately become integrated into the Australian curriculum. </p>
<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge Emily Gregg, Benjamin May, Dave Wandin, Michael Harrison, Marnie Pascoe, Fiona McConachie and Alex Kusmanoff for their contribution to the research that underpins this article. Thanks also to the principal, staff, students and parents of Carlton North Primary School for supporting the project.
<a href="https://icon-science.org/totemic-species/">Visit our website</a> to download the Totemic Species in Schools resources, including the program curriculum, findings factsheet, and evaluation survey.</em></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A student crouching in the native garden planted at her school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520711/original/file-20230413-28-oidxe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zadie was one of 283 students involved in the pilot Totemic Species in Schools program at Carlton North Primary School, which culminated in the planting of a native garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Bekessy</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-spiritual-teaching-in-schools-can-foster-reconciliation-and-inclusion-194324">Indigenous spiritual teaching in schools can foster reconciliation and inclusion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Ward research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley J. Moggridge is affiliated with the University of Canberra, is a Governor with WWF Australia and a Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Garrard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1). She is chair of Birdlife Australia's Research and Conservation Committee, a member of Zoos Victoria's Scientific Advisory Committee and a member of the Sustainable Subdivisions Framework advisory group for the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bekessy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and the European Commission. Research cited in this article was undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub with funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (Phase 1) and the Victorian Department of Land, Water, Environment and Planning. She is a Lead Councillor of the Biodiversity Council, a Board Member of Bush Heritage Australia, a member of WWF's Eminent Scientists Group and a member of the Advisory Group for Wood for Good.</span></em></p>The 10-week pilot program Totemic Species in Schools shows how Indigenous science can be woven into the existing curriculum. Students, teachers and parents provided positive feedback.Natasha Ward, Lead Researcher, RMIT UniversityBradley J. Moggridge, Associate Professor in Indigenous Water Science, University of CanberraGeorgia Garrard, Senior Lecturer, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of MelbourneSarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925042022-11-14T00:30:22Z2022-11-14T00:30:22ZBell frogs, dugong bones and giant cauliflowers: water stories come to life at Green Square<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494783/original/file-20221111-21-8gu7av.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4031%2C2673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheas Creek runs into Alexandra Canal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Ilaria Vanni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Did you know the Sydney suburb Rosebery was home to the now-endangered <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10483">green and golden bell frogs</a>? That enormous cauliflowers were nourished by fresh water springs? And that <a href="https://dictionaryofsydney.org/event/excavation_of_sheas_creek_1896">dugong bones</a> were found during excavation for the <a href="https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/from_sheas_creek_to_alexandra_canal">Alexandra Canal</a>?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mappingedges.org/projects/water-stories-activating-water-civic-ecologies-in-green-square/">Research</a> has revealed these and other water stories in a project that maps and brings to life the histories and practices of water in Green Square. For Traditional Owners, the Country now known as Green Square is nadunga gurad, sand dune Country, known for millennia for its nattai bamalmarray, freshwater wetlands and ephemeral ponds.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/may-you-always-taste-the-sweetest-fruit-uncovering-the-history-and-hidden-delights-of-your-neighbourhood-179308">'May you always taste the sweetest fruit': uncovering the history and hidden delights of your neighbourhood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of factories alongside a canal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493410/original/file-20221103-22-1dn4qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sawtooth factories on the Alexandra Canal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Green Square is Australia’s <a href="https://www.urbanagendaplatform.org/best-practice/i-green-square-rich-industrial-past-vibrant-sustainable-and-connected-community">largest urban renewal project</a>, spanning the inner eastern Sydney suburbs of Beaconsfield, Rosebery, Zetland, Alexandria and Waterloo. During the <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-not-again-a-third-straight-la-nina-is-likely-heres-how-you-and-your-family-can-prepare-188970">La Niña</a> event in 2021-22, the wetlands and ephemeral ponds became visible to Green Square residents and visitors over the first year of the research project. Yet the histories of water that shaped and continue to shape Green Square remained largely invisible. </p>
<p>Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney brought some of these stories to the surface in a storymap. We used a software package (ESRI’s ArcGIS) to integrate maps, archival text, expert voices, photos, videos and illustrations for the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cbfa956dc8744b4cbe7db5696eaff619">Water Stories</a> project. Telling these water stories allows us to explore the ever-changing relations between Country, development and urban imagination. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="ibis illustration" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493412/original/file-20221103-17-ghtx4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian white ibis is a common wetland bird in Green Square.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where do these stories come from?</h2>
<p>We went to a range of archives. Some were official, such as the State Library of NSW, the National Library Trove, the City of Sydney Archives and strategy documents, the <a href="https://dharawalstories.com/dharawal-dictionary/">Dharawal Dictionary</a>, state government policy documents and federal and state parliamentary Hansards. And some were grassroots records, such as the online archive of FrogCall, the newsletter of the Frog and Tadpole Society. We also spoke to experts such as zoologists, engineers and landscape architects. </p>
<p>However, the largest archive we explored is Green Square itself. To understand Green Square as a living archive we identified “portals” in the landscape: visible objects that provide entry points into water stories. A pub, a plaque, a frog pond, a maintenance hole, a hoarding, a canal, a creek, a blue tongue lizard and a native flower are translated into the storymap as geolocated icons on a base map. Clicking on each of these icons transports you to a new story.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hand-drawn map with illustrations drawn in circles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493408/original/file-20221103-18-vixwqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Water Stories map has nine ‘portals’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration: Ella Cutler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We pieced together fragments found in the archives into narratives that recover both well-known and little-known histories. These stories reveal the multiple and changing relations with water in this area.</p>
<p>What, for example, is the story of the pub? Perhaps you have been to the Cauliflower Hotel, one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. It was founded by George Rolfe, a well-known market gardener. Rolfe had prospered from growing a bumper crop of cauliflowers watered from springs during a drought.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/move-over-suburbia-green-square-offers-new-norm-for-urban-living-57633">Move over suburbia, Green Square offers new norm for urban living</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stories of Country and colonialism</h2>
<p>For millennia this area was a refuge on the route between Sydney’s two harbours, Gamay (Botany Bay) and War'ran (Sydney Cove). The presence of water led settler-colonial land owners to choose this place. Thus began the colonial history of Green Square as a site of agriculture, manufacturing, industry and now residential development. </p>
<p>This narrative is dominant in contemporary descriptions of Green Square, but it is not the only direction these stories flow.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Green and gold frog on a log" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494778/original/file-20221110-23-dvznv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=747&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The green and golden bell frog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The endangered green and golden bell frog, we discovered, prefers to make its habitat in disturbed landscapes, such as the water pooling from sand mining, rather than in custom-made nature reserves. This may dampen enthusiasm for the small frog pond established at <a href="https://foxrelocations.com.au/fun-things-to-do-in-kimberley-grove-reserve-in-rosebery-2018/">Kimberley Grove Reserve</a>. But it is important to understand the complexity of how such histories intersect if we are to make better decisions about cities in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>Some of the other stories surfaced by the project include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Gunyama, the name of the new aquatic centre means “stinky wind”, which could describe the smell of both ancient mangrove swamps and the noxious trades of the 1800s</p></li>
<li><p>a huge <a href="https://www.outdoordesign.com.au/news-info/stormwater-drain-keeps-green-square-dry/7754.htm">stormwater processing plant</a> lies underneath Green Square. Built as part of the development, it delivers up to 320 million litres of recycled stormwater each year to new buildings and open spaces.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="three men, one digging" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493409/original/file-20221103-24-i5k0l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dugong remains were found during excavation at Sheas Creek in 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Australian Museum (AMS351/V9817)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-if-but-when-city-planners-need-to-design-for-flooding-these-examples-show-the-way-157578">Not 'if', but 'when': city planners need to design for flooding. These examples show the way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On the storymap, watery words from the Dharawal Dictionary guide your interactive experience, because the premise for telling these water stories is that we understand the city as Country. Country is often misunderstood as being synonymous with land, but it comprises every aspect of the “natural” environment and ecology, including water and relationships between water and land. </p>
<p>We understand water is always present, even if not visible. And that care for cities means care for Country, which also means care for water. </p>
<p>As we collect and rearrange stories, we also create new ones. We are interested in hearing how as a resident, worker or visitor to Green Square you perceive the presence and histories of water in the neighbourhood.</p>
<p>By sharing your own water story you can contribute to the living archive on the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cbfa956dc8744b4cbe7db5696eaff619">Water Stories website</a>. Simply click on the eel at the end of each story and add some text to share your story about how you experience water at Green Square.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The <a href="https://107.org.au/event/water-stories/">Water Stories exhibition</a>, featuring illustrations by Ella Cutler printed on site at the <a href="https://rizzeria.com/">Rizzeria</a>, opens November 16 at 6pm.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilaria Vanni receives funding from The City of Sydney. She is a member of the Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C_SERC) and of the Creative Practice Research Group at the University of Technology Sydney.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Crosby receives funding from The City of Sydney. She is member of The Frog and Tadpole Study Group of New South Wales (FATS) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long before Green Square was a huge urban renewal project it was Country known to Traditional Owners for its wetlands. Until now, those water stories have remained largely invisible.Ilaria Vanni, Associate Professor, International Studies and Global Societies, University of Technology SydneyAlexandra Crosby, Associate Professor, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyShannon Foster, D'harawal Knowledge Keeper, PhD Candidate and Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832292022-06-07T20:03:44Z2022-06-07T20:03:44ZShifting seasons: using Indigenous knowledge and western science to help address climate change impacts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467348/original/file-20220607-15990-7we5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4848%2C3598&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yuku Baja Muliku Country, Archer Point, North Queensland</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Traditional Owners in Australia are the creators of millennia worth of <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/native-knowledge-what-ecologists-are-learning-from-indigenous-people">traditional ecological knowledge</a> – an understanding of how to live amid changing environmental conditions. Seasonal calendars are one of the forms of this knowledge best known by non-Indigenous Australians. But as the climate changes, these calendars are being disrupted. </p>
<p>How? Take the example of wattle trees that flower at a specific time of year. That previously indicated the start of the fishing season for particular species. Climate change is causing these plants to flower later. In response, Traditional Owners on <a href="http://www.archerpoint.com.au/">Yuku Baja Muliku</a> (YBM) Country near Cooktown are having to adapt their calendars and make new links.</p>
<p>That’s not all. The seasonal timing of cultural burning practices is changing in some areas. Changes to rainfall and temperature alter when high intensity (hot) burns and low intensity (cool) burns are undertaken. </p>
<p>Seasonal connections vital to Traditional Owners’ culture are decoupling.</p>
<p>To systematically document changes, co-author Larissa Hale and her community worked with western scientists to pioneer a Traditional Owner-centred approach to climate impacts on cultural values. This process, <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kw7z2c9">published last week</a>, could also help Traditional Owners elsewhere to develop adaptive management for their Indigenous heritage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wattle flower" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467324/original/file-20220606-15930-59oyt9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A YBM Traditional Owner showing the wattle flower which used to be an indicator species for good fishing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Climate change threatens First Nations - their perspectives must be heard</h2>
<p>Australia’s First Nations people face many threats from climate change, ranging from impacts on food availability to health. For instance, rising seas are already <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/torres-strait-islanders-plead-for-climate-action-as-government-builds-seawall-20220401-p5aa13.html">flooding islands</a> in the Torres Strait with devastating consequences.</p>
<p>The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on impacts and adaption noted in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_FinalDraft_Chapter11.pdf">Australasia chapter</a> that climate-related impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their country and cultures are “pervasive, complex and compounding.”</p>
<p>While it is important these impacts are recorded, the dominant source of the data is academic literature based on western science. Impacts and pressures Traditional Owners are seeing and managing on their country must be assessed and managed from their unique perspective.</p>
<p>Traditional Owners have survived and adapted to climatic shifts during their 60,000+ years in Australia. This includes sea-level rise that flooded the area that is now the Great Barrier Reef and extreme rainfall variability. As a result, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-knowledge-is-lost-when-a-species-disappears-its-time-to-let-indigenous-people-care-for-their-country-their-way-172760">they have developed</a> a fine-tuned sense of nature’s variability over time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drone shot of Annan river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467327/original/file-20220607-20-y7p3ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">YBM Traditional Owners and scientists surveying freshwater mussel populations on Annan River near Cooktown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what did we do?</h2>
<p>Worried about the changes they were seeing on their Land and Sea Country around Archer Point in North Queensland, the YBM people worked with scientists from James Cook University to create a new way to assess impacts on cultural values. </p>
<p>To do this, we drew on the values-based, science-driven, and community-focused approach of the <a href="https://cvi-heritage.org/about">climate vulnerability index</a>. It was the first time this index had been used to assess values of significance for Indigenous people. </p>
<p>YBM people responded to key prompts to assess changes to their values, including: </p>
<ul>
<li>What did the value look like 100 years ago? </li>
<li>What does it look like now? </li>
<li>What do you expect it will look like in the climate future around 2050? </li>
<li>What management practices relate to that value and will they change?</li>
</ul>
<p>We then discussed what issues have emerged from these climatic changes.</p>
<p>Using this process, we were able to single out issues directly affecting how YBM people live. For instance, traditional food sources can be affected by climate change. In the past, freshwater mussels in the Annan River were easy to access and collect. Extreme temperature events in the last 10 years have contributed to mass die-offs. Now mussels are much smaller in size and tend to be far <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311066114_Freshwater_mussel_surveys_from_the_Annan_River_Yuku_Baja_Muliku_Country_-_project_findings">fewer in number</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Freshwater mussels Annan River" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467325/original/file-20220607-16-b1ny4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Freshwater mussels used to be more common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the process we also documented that changes to rainfall and temperature have altered the time when some plant foods appear. This is particularly true for plants that depend upon cultural burns to flower or put up shoots. This in turn has meant that the timing of collecting and harvesting has changed.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="bushfoods found on YBM country" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467328/original/file-20220607-12-61cmu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The timing of when some bushfoods appear is changing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These climate-linked changes challenge existing bodies of traditional knowledge, altering connections between different species, ecosystems and weather patterns across Land and Sea Country.</p>
<p>A key part of this process was developing a mutually beneficial partnership between traditional ecological knowledge holders and western scientists. It was critical to establish a relationship built on trust and respect. </p>
<p>Walking the country first – seeing rivers, mangroves, beaches, headlands, bush, wetlands, and looking out at Sea Country – helped researchers understand the perspectives of Traditional Owners. Honouring experience and knowledge (especially that held by Elders and Indigenous rangers) was important. Indigenous cultural and intellectual property <a href="https://www.artslaw.com.au/information-sheet/indigenous-cultural-intellectual-property-icip-aitb/">protocols</a> were recognised and respected throughout the assessment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-land-is-burning-and-western-science-does-not-have-all-the-answers-100331">Our land is burning, and Western science does not have all the answers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">Respecting</a> and working collaboratively with Traditional Owners as expert scientists in their own knowledge system was critical for success. Any effort to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge in climate change assessments must protect sensitive traditional knowledge.</p>
<p>As climate change will continue and accelerate, we must work together to minimise resulting impacts on the cultural heritage of First Nations peoples.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-australian-government-must-listen-to-torres-strait-leaders-on-climate-change-171384">Why the Australian government must listen to Torres Strait leaders on climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karin Gerhardt is currently completing her PhD on a collaborative project with Yuku Baja Muliku Traditional Owners. She works for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and has previously worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Day previously worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority between 1986 and 2014, and was one of the Directors at GBRMPA between 1998 and 2014. Together with Scott Heron, Jon developed the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) for World Heritage that has also been applied to assess climate impacts upon other heritage areas. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larissa Hale is a Yuku Baja Muliku Jalunji Warra Traditional Owner and is currently the Managing Director for Yuku Baja Muliku Landowner & Reservers Ltd. Larissa Hale is currently serving her second term as a Local Government Cook Shire Counicllor. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott F. Heron has received funding from Australian Research Council and NASA ROSES Ecological Forecasting. Together with Jon Day, Scott developed the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) for World Heritage that has also been applied to assess climate impacts upon other heritage areas.</span></em></p>Australia’s Traditional Owners have survived climate shifts before. Bringing traditional ecological knowledge in contact with western climate scientists could help First Nations survive this one.Karin Gerhardt, PhD student, James Cook UniversityJon C. Day, PSM, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook UniversityLarissa Hale, Yuku Baja Muliku Traditional Owner, Indigenous KnowledgeScott F. Heron, Associate Professor in Physics, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1793082022-03-17T04:21:09Z2022-03-17T04:21:09Z‘May you always taste the sweetest fruit’: uncovering the history and hidden delights of your neighbourhood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452702/original/file-20220317-8307-1c8rdmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C18%2C3995%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ilaria Vanni</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sydney’s Green Square is one of Australia’s biggest urban renewal projects. But it’s much more than a construction site. First Nations people know it by another name: nadunga gurad, or sand dune Country.</p>
<p>For millenia, the area has been known for its nattai bamalmarray: freshwater wetlands and seasonal ponds. This Country has always been an important refuge along the Songline routes that connect War'ran (Sydney Cove) to Gamay (Botany Bay).</p>
<p>To existing residents, Green Square is home. It’s also a place to walk, visit parks, shop, and talk to neighbours, shopkeepers and tradies.</p>
<p>But it can be hard to see the “green” in Green Square. It’s a disrupted place punctuated by huge pits in the ground, roadworks, scaffoldings, barriers and cranes. </p>
<p>We’ve been working on connecting residents, workers and visitors to the local environment. We hope our project becomes a template to help anyone engage more deeply with their neighbourhood. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="aerial view of park with apartments in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452686/original/file-20220317-8184-83gcgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image from 2013 showing plans for Green Square.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">City of Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An atlas for change</h2>
<p>Green Square spans the inner east Sydney suburbs of Zetland, Beaconsfield, Rosebery, Alexandria and Waterloo. In 2020, the site was home to <a href="https://profile.id.com.au/sydney/population-estimate?WebID=340">34,000 people</a> and this number is growing rapidly.</p>
<p>During lockdowns last year, we and the charity <a href="https://107.org.au/">107 Projects</a> sought to connect residents, workers and visitors to nature and people in their suburb. It involved workshops, walks and a map for self-guided tours. We also collected stories in a <a href="https://www.mappingedges.org/projects/the-green-square-atlas-of-civic-ecologies/">book</a>, just released. It includes stories about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a <a href="https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community-gardens/green-square-growers">community garden group</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/roseberyhoney/">beekeepers and honeymakers</a></p></li>
<li><p>public art and <a href="https://www.publicartsquad.com.au/">verge</a> gardeners</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork/while-i-live-i-will-grow/">artists</a></p></li>
<li><p>Australia’s leading <a href="https://www.ozharvest.org/">food rescue organisation</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Atlases have historically been, and continue to be, tools of colonisation – cataloguing and archiving the status quo.</p>
<p>But done right, they can also help us understand places in new ways. In Australia, this includes recognising we are always on Indigenous Country.</p>
<p>In that vein, our atlas includes an important contribution by Shannon Foster, a registered Sydney Traditional Owner and local D’harawal eora Knowledge Keeper.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-schools-matter-not-just-for-arts-sake-but-for-urban-renewal-in-sydney-and-other-cities-62901">Why arts schools matter, not just for art's sake but for urban renewal in Sydney and other cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="here" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452697/original/file-20220317-12901-1qviaj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shannon Foster, middle, a Traditional Owner who contributed to the atlas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo Kinniburgh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ngeeyinee dingan duruwan bata</h2>
<p>Foster tells how, amid dense urban development at Green Square, unique plants from ancient ecosystems still emerge from undeveloped gullies. </p>
<p>These include paperbark trees, casuarina groves, clumps of kangaroo grass and lomandra, and regenerated areas of Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub.</p>
<p>As Foster says in this edited extract:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of my earliest memories of learning culture from my D’harawal eora father was about understanding plants and what you could and couldn’t eat. I was always amazed to realise that you could actually live off the gardens and earth around you. </p>
<p>Today, one of my favourite edible plants is bamuru (kangaroo grass), not just because you can make a delicious, gluten-free, light and tasty bread from it, but because it represents the un-forgetting of knowledges and stories that have been silenced and, sometimes, erased from our lives.</p>
<p>There are places across Sydney Country, especially on abandoned and neglected land, that bamuru and other edible crops like bundago (native daisy yam) flourish again. These plants begin to grow in vast fields, echoing their ancient, agricultural past and the careful management of Country by local custodians like my D’harawal eora family. </p>
<p>The awakening of these remnant crops is a reminder that Country is its own archive, holding seeds and stories as evidence that we do indeed exist and that we have long and complex relationships with Country that can never be erased.</p>
<p>Now, as I walk the streets of Green Square, I look for signs of old Country breaking through the centuries of colonial development. </p>
<p>I dream of this place as it was, sand dunes and wetlands, galumban gurad (sacred Country), and I marvel at the fragile seedlings who, against all odds, break through the oppressive concrete and pavers to stand tall, once again, with Country. </p>
<p>I also honour the same spirit in my elders and ancestors who have raised me to understand that it doesn’t matter how much concrete is laid down, Country is still here and is still nurturing and sheltering us, just as it always has been and always will be.</p>
<p>– Ngeeyinee dingan duruwan bata (May you always taste the sweetest fruit).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Always was, always will be</h2>
<p>Foster reminds us no matter how much we build on Country, it has always been – and remains – vital to life and culture for local custodians.</p>
<p>More broadly, the atlas aims to show we can improve city life and the urban environment – just by how we interact with one another, and treat the plants, animals and insects around us.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/although-we-didnt-produce-these-problems-we-suffer-them-3-ways-you-can-help-in-naidocs-call-to-heal-country-163362">'Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them': 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC's call to Heal Country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="woman walks past verge garden" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4013%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452648/original/file-20220316-7879-1i6o3x4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Small actions can improve city life and the urban environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ilaria Vanni</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If this idea appeals to you, download a <a href="https://www.mappingedges.org/projects/the-green-square-atlas-of-civic-ecologies/">free copy of the atlas</a> and try these activities to help you “tune in” to your local area:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>find out whose Country are you on </p></li>
<li><p>save and exchange seeds from native plants and heirloom food varieties</p></li>
<li><p>get to know your local plant species, especially the endangered ones</p></li>
<li><p>make and maintain a verge garden</p></li>
<li><p>start or join a community garden</p></li>
<li><p>forage for wild foods, such as edible weeds</p></li>
<li><p>conserve water</p></li>
<li><p>create habitat for urban wildlife</p></li>
<li><p>spend time at nearby natural places such as ponds and parks</p></li>
<li><p>cut waste, to reduce pressure on city services and the planet</p></li>
<li><p>look for trees providing shelter on hot days.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These small, slow actions help create connections to nature and place, and opportunities to meet and share with people in your community. These connections are vital to overcoming the downsides of urban renewal.</p>
<p>And as we remake urban places, we must remember: our neighbourhood always was, and always will be, unceded Aboriginal land.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rosemary-in-roundabouts-lemons-over-the-fence-how-to-go-urban-foraging-safely-respectfully-and-cleverly-167883">Rosemary in roundabouts, lemons over the fence: how to go urban foraging safely, respectfully and cleverly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Foster is the founding partner and creative co-Director at bangawarra, Connecting with Country Spatial Design.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies was funded by the Council of the City of Sydney and supported by the University of Technology Sydney Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies was funded by the Council of the City of Sydney and supported by the University of Technology Sydney Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC)
</span></em></p>Urban renewal can bring downsides as well as benefits. A new guide helps people connect more deeply with their suburbs.Shannon Foster, D'harawal Knowledge Keeper PhD Candidate and Lecturer UTS, University of Technology SydneyAlexandra Crosby, Associate Professor, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyIlaria Vanni, Associate Professor, International Studies and Global Societies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1670402021-12-28T19:22:41Z2021-12-28T19:22:41ZThe epic, 550-million-year story of Uluṟu, and the spectacular forces that led to its formation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429247/original/file-20211029-17-1yurlmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C58%2C7720%2C5123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steven Wei Ima/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Part of the magic of Ulu<u>r</u>u is the way it tricks your senses. Deep orange by day, at sunrise and sunset it appears to change colour, becoming a more vibrant shade of red, and then almost purple. </p>
<p>Its size also seems to change depending on your perspective. Approaching Ulu<u>r</u>u from afar you are struck by how small it appears. But as you get closer, you realise it is truly a huge mountain, a behemoth in the middle of the comparatively flat Australian desert. </p>
<p>Australian geologists are now revealing yet another dimension to Ulu<u>r</u>u’s magic: the spectacular forces that led to its formation. </p>
<p>Ulu<u>r</u>u is a time capsule. Within its sand grains there is an epic 550-million-year saga of continents colliding, mountains rising and falling, and the remarkable strength of our most iconic mountain.</p>
<h2>Ulu<u>r</u>u is sacred</h2>
<p>To the A<u>n</u>angu, Ulu<u>r</u>u <a href="https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/culture/">is sacred</a>. The A<u>n</u>angu are the owners of the land on which Ulu<u>r</u>u sits and they have long understood its magic. </p>
<p>Their Dreaming stories tell of the dramatic creation of Ulu<u>r</u>u and Kata Tjuta on the previously featureless Earth by ancestral creator beings known as the Tjukuritja or Waparitja. </p>
<p>If you get the opportunity to tour Ulu<u>r</u>u with a Traditional Owner you will hear <a href="https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/culture/stories/">stories</a> about the significance of some of the dimples, caves and undulations, many of which have a unique and important place in A<u>n</u>angu culture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437708/original/file-20211215-17-13nt5tp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The story of Uluru began 550 million years ago, when India smashed into the West Australian coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robyn Lawford</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Compared to the Traditional Owners, whose knowledge dates back several tens of thousands of years, scientists have only realised the significance of Ulu<u>r</u>u over the last 30 years or so. </p>
<p>Ulu<u>r</u>u’s geological history has been revealed by assembling different types of data, like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. That puzzle is taking shape and the scene it reveals is perhaps even more spectacular than the rock itself. </p>
<p>To tell Ulu<u>r</u>u’s story from the beginning we need to travel back in time 550 million years. </p>
<h2>India smashed into the Western Australian coast</h2>
<p>Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly in motion, continents collide with each other and then rift apart. Around <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825220305237">550 million years ago</a>, continents collided as part of the assembly of the supercontinent Gondwana, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/551044">one of several times</a> in Earth’s history where most of the continents were stuck together in one continuous piece of land.</p>
<p>Back then, a map of our globe would have looked very different. At this time, Antarctica was nestled against the Great Australian Bight. If you were around then you could have walked from Australia directly into Antarctica without getting your shoes wet. India was situated to the west of Western Australia when it was pulled toward our continent and smashed into the coastline. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-truth-telling-return-to-uluru-and-reckoning-with-the-sins-of-fathers-155118">Friday essay: truth telling, Return to Uluru and reckoning with the sins of fathers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>India and Australia’s collision caused massive stresses to reverberate throughout the Australian crust, like waves of energy crashing through the continent. When those waves got to Central Australia, something pretty remarkable happened that geologists can understand by <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/disciplines/geophysics">mapping the rocks beneath the surface</a>.</p>
<p>Those maps reveal <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/lithosphere/article/1/6/343/99528/The-architecture-kinematics-and-lithospheric?searchresult=1">a complex network</a> of ancient, interwoven fractures and faults, similar to the famous <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-san-andreas-fault-is-about-to-crack-heres-what-will-happen-when-it-does-58975">San Andreas fault</a> network. Unlike a fracture in your arm bone, these faults never healed, so they remained broken, forming weak zones susceptible to breaking and moving again.</p>
<p>So, when the waves of energy from WA reached Central Australia, the network of fractures moved, pushing rock packages on top of each other. As the rocks moved past each other, they also moved upwards and were thrust into the air. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431885/original/file-20211115-23-1d42cx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uluru is made of sandstone, a type of rock formed in oceans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An enormous mountain range emerged</h2>
<p>Each fault rupture moved the rocks so quickly that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019181419400069C">huge earthquakes</a> shook the ground. Gradually, these faults uplifted an enormous mountain range. It was called the Petermann mountains, and it was unlike anything in Australia today. </p>
<p>The mountains were hundreds of kilometres long and five kilometres high, more akin to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hTVNidxg2s">Indian Himalaya</a> than Australia’s <a href="https://australiaphysicalfeatures.weebly.com/the-great-dividing-range.html">Great Dividing Range</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-from-the-field-the-stunning-crystals-revealing-deep-secrets-about-australian-volcanoes-161176">Photos from the field: the stunning crystals revealing deep secrets about Australian volcanoes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They were mostly made of granite, a rock that crystallises from molten rock (magma) deep underground. This granite was pushed up to the surface in the mountain-building process. Normally, mountains would be covered in vegetation, but 550 million years ago land plants had <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-silence-of-ediacara-the-shadow-of-uranium-72058">not yet evolved</a>, meaning these mountains were probably bare. </p>
<h2>Boulders cracked off, an ocean formed</h2>
<p>Bare mountains weather quickly because they are more exposed to rain and wind. Big cracks formed in the granite, splitting away rocks and boulders, which fell into rivers gushing down deep valleys carved into the mountain. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429249/original/file-20211029-23-46o184.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At sunrise and sunset, Uluru appears to change colour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christian Bass/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the eroded rocks tumbled in the torrential water, they broke apart, until only grains of sand remained, like the <a href="https://www.sandatlas.org/sand-that-remembers-the-rock-it-once-was/">sand you see on the bottom of a river bed</a>. These huge <a href="https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/02/the-stunning-beauty-of-braided-rivers.html">braided rivers</a> came off the northern side of the Petermann mountains and snaked across the landscape until the rivers entered a low-lying region, called a sedimentary basin.</p>
<p>When the river reached the basin, the <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/30/10/887/192268/Isotopic-test-of-a-thermally-driven-intraplate?redirectedFrom=fulltext">sediment from the mountains</a> dropped out of the water, depositing layer upon layer of sand. The weight of it pushed down on the underlying rock, causing the basin to deepen until it was kilometres thick. </p>
<p>The overlying layers compacted the sand deposited previously, forming a rock called sandstone. Over time the basin continued to deepen and was covered by water, forming an inland ocean lapping at the foot of the huge mountain range.</p>
<h2>Ancient faults reawakened, and Ulu<u>r</u>u rose from the ocean</h2>
<p>Sediment continued to deposit into the ocean until about 300 million years ago when the ancient faults began to reawaken during a new mountain-building event called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs_Orogeny">Alice Springs orogeny</a>. </p>
<p>The thick layers of sand that had cemented into solid sandstone were uplifted above sea level. Squeezed together by huge tectonic forces, the layers buckled and <a href="https://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2019/03/08/friday-fold-dent-de-morcles/">folded</a> into M-shapes. The apex, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fold_(geology)">hinge of folds</a>, was compressed more than surrounding rocks, and it is from the hinge of a massive fold that Ulu<u>r</u>u formed. </p>
<p>Folding and deformation made Ulu<u>r</u>u strong and able to resist the forces of weathering that eroded the surrounding, weaker rocks, including almost all of the once mighty Petermann mountains. If we could dig underneath Ulu<u>r</u>u, we would see it is only the <a href="https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/73105">very tip of a rock sequence</a> that extends kilometres down under the surface, like a rock iceberg.</p>
<p>Ulu<u>r</u>u is a sacred site to A<u>n</u>angu and our respect for their deep knowledge and ownership of this land means we <a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-uluru-to-climbers-is-better-for-tourism-in-the-long-run-86831">no longer climb Uluṟu</a>. </p>
<p>But even if we could, why would we want to? Ulu<u>r</u>u’s magic is most evident when you stand at its base, look up, and picture in your mind the enormous forces that conspired to form it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/land-ahoy-study-shows-the-first-continents-bobbed-to-the-surface-more-than-3-billion-years-ago-171391">Land ahoy: study shows the first continents bobbed to the surface more than 3 billion years ago</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Finch is the President of the Women in Earth and Environmental Sciences Australasia (WOMEESA) Network. She is a 2021-2022 Science and Technology Australia Superstar of STEM.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Giles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Continents colliding, mountains rising and falling, and remarkable strength. The story of Australia’s most iconic mountain is truly magical.Melanie Finch, Lecturer in Structural Geology and Metamorphism, Monash UniversityAndrew Giles, Assistant lecturer, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1682612021-09-23T06:35:57Z2021-09-23T06:35:57ZWhen fire hits, do koalas flee or stick to their tree? Answering these and other questions is vital<p>Figures <a href="https://www.savethekoala.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/MediaRelease_Koalapopulations.pdf">released</a> this week suggest Australia’s koala populations have plummeted by 30% in three years, and fewer than 58,000 now remain in the wild. </p>
<p>The statement from the Australian Koala Foundation has not been verified on the ground, giving it a high degree of uncertainty. But the claim aligns with a number of studies showing some koala populations are rapidly declining, particularly in <a href="https://environment.des.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/88913/seq-koala-population-modelling-study.pdf">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.12400">New South Whales</a>. </p>
<p>Fire is an increasing threat to koalas; the 2019-20 megafires are estimated to have affected more than <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/ArticleDocuments/353/WWF_Impacts-of-the-unprecedented-2019-2020-bushfires-on-Australian-animals.pdf">60,000 koalas</a> and reduced population numbers <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/emr.12458">at multiple sites</a>, including several areas of <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aba8372">New South Wales</a>. As bushfire risk increases under climate change, <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/adaptation/publications/fire-regimes">eucalyptus forest</a> where koalas live are expected to suffer further impacts in the next 50-100 years. </p>
<p>So what’s the best way to protect these iconic animals from fires? Our new <a href="https://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/publications-and-tools/better-managing-fires-and-their-impacts-for-koala-conservation-report">report</a> for the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) sought to answer this question. We identified actions to reduce the risk of koalas being harmed by fires, and found gaps in scientific knowledge where more research is urgently needed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422292/original/file-20210921-13-mmtjoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The research explored how best to protect koalas from fires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A few big unknowns</h2>
<p>Our research found scientific understanding of the interaction between fire management and koala conservation is lacking in three areas.</p>
<p>First, more research is needed on koala movements and their activity patterns before, during and after fires. For example, do koalas move during fire or stay in the same trees? </p>
<p>Evidence shows koalas rapidly <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/am/am14010">move to</a> and <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/wr06075#:%7E:text=The%20aim%20of%20this%20study,koalas%20in%20remnant%20coastal%20forest.&text=From%20a%20total%204631%20trees,included%2053%25%20in%20burnt%20trees.">use</a> recently burnt habitat. But it’s not known whether koalas found in recently burnt areas are new to that part of the forest or inhabited it before the fire. </p>
<p>After bushfires and prescribed burns, koalas can be injured by smouldering bark or burning embers when moving between trees. They can also become dehydrated. But how this affects koala movement and survival is barely understood. </p>
<p>Second, we need better understanding of how prescribed burning affects koala populations, in both the short and long term. Prescribed burning may benefit koalas if it reduces the severity of bushfires, but it can also kill or injure individual koalas. Better understanding the positives and negatives is crucial.</p>
<p>This might be achieved through long-term GPS radio-tracking of individual koalas, or compiling information about injured or dead koalas after prescribed burns and reporting it to conservation authorities.</p>
<p>Third, we need to know more about links between habitat connectivity, bushfire characteristics and koala population dynamics. </p>
<p>For example, fire can cause koala habitat to fragment. This makes habitat drier, which in turn may increase fire frequency and severity. But increased fragmentation can also limit the spread of fire and make it easier to control, which ultimately benefits koalas. More research into these trade-offs is required.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stopping-koala-extinction-is-agonisingly-simple-but-heres-why-im-not-optimistic-141696">Stopping koala extinction is agonisingly simple. But here's why I'm not optimistic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422293/original/file-20210921-23-1xieoeq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fire causes koala habitat to fragment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fires and koalas: a roadmap</h2>
<p>Koalas can be protected from fires in various ways, including managing fire risk or, when fires do occur, managing koala populations and habitat to increase the chance of recovery. </p>
<p>But to date, there’s been little guidance about how effective various management actions are, and how best to allocate resources. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/publications-and-tools/better-managing-fires-and-their-impacts-for-koala-conservation-report">framework</a>, one of the first of its kind, sought to address these questions. It can be used by land managers, scientists, koala rehabilitation groups, the media and the general public.</p>
<p>The work involved reviewing existing literature on fire ecology and management, as well as koala ecology and conservation. We also gathered expert advice through individual discussions and workshops in Queensland and New South Wales. </p>
<p>We identified several goals that, if achieved, will help maintain koala populations in fire prone landscapes. They include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>improving or maintaining koala habitat and koala populations before and after fires. This might involve replanting, weed management, reforestation and pest control, long-term monitoring of koala populations and their habitat or minimising other threats, such as vehicle collisions, dog attacks, habitat loss and climate change</p></li>
<li><p>maintaining or restoring fire patterns suited to an ecosystem – for example, by conducting prescribed burning to make an area less flammable in the case of altered fire frequency, or so-called “<a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/RJ/RJ15057">mosaic</a>” burning to create patches of burnt and unburnt areas</p></li>
<li><p>actions during bushfires, such as creating a low-intensity backburn that travels down a slope away from koala areas</p></li>
<li><p>exchanging knowledge between koala conservation organisations and Traditional Owners, Indigenous communities of the area and the various fire management authorities</p></li>
<li><p>effective post-fire management, such as quickly rescuing injured koalas for rehabilitation, and restoring key koala habitat.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-find-burnt-starving-koalas-weeks-after-the-bushfires-133519">Scientists find burnt, starving koalas weeks after the bushfires</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="injured koala with gloved hands of carers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422587/original/file-20210922-20-1vmiqho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Koalas injured in fires should be quickly rehabilitated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Mariuz/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Our proposed strategies and actions should also take into account other priorities, such as human safety, property protection and cultural values of Indigenous people and others.</p>
<p>Our framework requires further development. But it’s a first step in bringing together information previously scattered across different sources and branches of knowledge. </p>
<p>The report gives those working to protect koalas, and other tree-dwelling species such as greater glider, a set of guidelines to manage fire and ensure koala conservation strategies are effective. Our research methods can also be used to identify fire management strategies for other species around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pablo Negret has previously been funded by the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Lunney receives support from the Commonwealth and NSW State governments, and the University of Sydney.</span></em></p>Figures released this week suggest Australia’s koala populations have plummeted. So what’s the best way to protect these iconic animals from fires?Pablo Negret, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of QueenslandDaniel Lunney, Adjunct professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571472021-06-06T20:02:52Z2021-06-06T20:02:52ZThe Wet Tropics’ wildlife is celebrated worldwide. Its cultural heritage? Not so much<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401826/original/file-20210520-15-jtxb97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C25%2C5751%2C3802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Wet Tropics of Australia — rainforest stretching 450 kilometres along Queensland’s coastline — is renowned for its vast array of wildlife and ancient plant species. It’s little wonder the rainforest is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of 20 in Australia. </p>
<p>However, the <em>cultural</em> heritage of the Wet Tropics isn’t recognised or celebrated with quite the same gusto, with the world heritage listing failing to acknowledge the rich, ongoing significance of Aboriginal culture. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221001589">Our recent paper</a> assessed existing archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and historical evidence. And we showed the diverse ways these forests are globally significant — not just for their ecological heritage, but also for preserving traces of millennia of human activities. </p>
<p>But there’s much scope for cultural recognition to go further on a national level, too. While the Wet Tropics’ <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/wet-tropics">National Heritage Listing</a> recognises Indigenous heritage, Traditional Owners should have more freedom to manage the region in our holistic way. This would lead to better outcomes for the environment. </p>
<h2>The cultural significance of these rainforests</h2>
<p>Aboriginal rainforest people used a wide variety of forest resources. For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018207001484">studies of</a> ancient plant parts and stone tools show these communities were processing often-toxic rainforest nuts for eating from as early as 5,000 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cassowary by the road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401823/original/file-20210520-17-ks1jcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cassowaries may have once been tamed and then eaten in ceremonial feasts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rene van Raders</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They also hunted local animals, such as tree kangaroos, pythons and wallabies. And they may even have captured and tamed the enigmatic cassowaries, later feasting on them during large ceremonial gatherings. </p>
<p>Rainforest people also used tropical forest plants for medicine and to manufacture artefacts. They also manipulated them – for example, <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p331441/pdf/book.pdf?referer=1763">evidence shows</a> Aboriginal people strategically used fire to keep open pockets clear of invading rainforest for campsites and ceremonial grounds.</p>
<p>Their skillful forest management enabled pre-colonial Aboriginal populations to survive all year round in rainforests characterised by high humidity, rainfall, cyclones, heat, and dense vegetation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-rainforest-was-once-a-grassland-savanna-maintained-by-aboriginal-people-until-colonisation-138289">This rainforest was once a grassland savanna maintained by Aboriginal people – until colonisation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Today, we can still see Aboriginal people’s ecological legacy in the region, such as through the clusters of rainforest food trees near cultural sites.</p>
<h2>The long fight for recognition</h2>
<p>Aboriginal rainforest occupation and land management was majorly impacted with European settlement across the region, and the subsequent clearing of rainforest for agriculture. </p>
<p>Aboriginal rainforest people were forcefully removed from their traditional lands and resettled on reserves and in missions, often far away from their homelands. </p>
<p>Traditional land practices were suppressed, which caused these rainforests to change. Weed infestations and feral pigs became widespread. Likewise, the rainforest understory thickened, as any area not felled by Europeans <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-rainforest-was-once-a-grassland-savanna-maintained-by-aboriginal-people-until-colonisation-138289">was left to</a> “look after itself”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ferns" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403545/original/file-20210531-24-n4hjxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After Aboriginal people were forced from their land, the rainforest understory thickened and became a bushfire risk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These changes have exposed both biological and cultural heritage to increasingly intense fires, such as those we saw in the horror bushfire season of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-staggering-1-8-million-hectares-burned-in-high-severity-fires-during-australias-black-summer-157883">2019-2020</a>. </p>
<p>Since the World Heritage Area was declared in 1988, rainforest Aboriginal peoples have campaigned to be included in management plans. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-stone-wedged-in-a-gum-tree-shows-the-resilience-of-aboriginal-culture-in-australia-139663">How a stone wedged in a gum tree shows the resilience of Aboriginal culture in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 1998, they produced the seminal report “<a href="https://www.wettropics.gov.au/site/user-assets/docs/REVIEW.pdf">Which Way Our Cultural Survival</a>”, which reviewed the significant contribution rainforest Aboriginal people make to managing the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. </p>
<p>Finally, in 2012, the <a href="https://www.wettropics.gov.au/national-heritage-listing">Australian National Heritage List</a> recognised the Wet Tropics’ cultural values. This is extremely important because it gives rainforest Aboriginal people a seat at the table in management decision making.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rat kangaroo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403541/original/file-20210531-25-13bz668.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The northern bettong (or ‘rat kangaroo’) is one of the species benefiting from Indigenous knowledge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">inaturalist/Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rainforest Aboriginal people’s long fight for recognition in the Wet Tropics is now turning into direct action, as we apply our unique knowledge to Country. Today, Indigenous land and sea rangers manage biodiversity, threatened species, waterways and water quality, and we care for country through fire management programs.</p>
<p>For example, there are numerous management plans for threatened species that need a defined fire regime. This includes the <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/northern-bettong">northern bettong</a>, whose forest habitat on the edge of rainforest requires frequent burning to keep the understorey open and grassy. Indigenous knowledge forms the basis of this. </p>
<h2>But our campaign isn’t over yet</h2>
<p>On a national level, we need to manage Country as a “whole”, not just one species at a time. </p>
<p>Fire is an integral tool for this management, and we need to apply the right fire for the right Country (something we’re showing through the <a href="https://www.firesticks.org.au/">Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation</a>). In traditional fire management, the dominant tree species and soils in a specific area determines the fire to apply to Country, and at what time of year. There’s no “one size fits all” solution. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A few people surround a small fire" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403538/original/file-20210531-24-8hha0k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous land managers care for country through fire management programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gerry Turpin</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221001589">research paper</a> makes it clear “long-term” perspectives from oral history, archaeology, history, and paleoecology can make important contributions to conservation management plans for threatened species. This includes the northern bettong, cassowary and tree kangaroo. </p>
<p>Knowledge from Traditional Owners can also add important information on vegetation change over several decades. This knowledge allows us to reconstruct vegetation changes since European settlement. It also provides insights into past Aboriginal use of plants and animals, and mapping cultural sites and walking routes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rio-tinto-just-blasted-away-an-ancient-aboriginal-site-heres-why-that-was-allowed-139466">Rio Tinto just blasted away an ancient Aboriginal site. Here’s why that was allowed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One example shows the potential for this. <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/conservation/community/land-sea-rangers/grants-program">In September 2019</a>, a Queensland government grant supported Jirrbal Traditional Owners to return to Urumbal Pocket, an archaeological site on the upper Tully River. Jirrbal Traditional Owners undertook surveys to identify imprints of past human activities left on the landscape. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401822/original/file-20210520-19-1m6c9as.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view of Urumbal Pocket from opposite side of the Tully River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Asa Ferrier</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They found significant changes to the region’s biodiversity since the removal of Aboriginal land management around 100 years ago. They noted, for example, that no new trees were naturally growing, and remnant sclerophyll tree species were dying, enhancing the rainforest takeover. </p>
<p>The visit also helped Traditional Owners reconnect with their Country, and initiated discussions relating to contemporary burning and other land management tools.</p>
<p>We need equal recognition of the Wet Tropics’ natural and cultural values, and more detailed investigations into how people shaped the rainforest. This will help raise awareness of the international importance of the cultural heritage, and eventually help get it recognised by UNESCO. </p>
<p>And this will help more Australians see the rainforest as a cultural landscape – one that has been managed and maintained by people, rather than just a relic unchanged since the dinosaurs. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Ellen Weber from the Wet Tropics Management Authority.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Hunter is a member of a Rainforest Aboriginal people think tank, and actively works with Rainforest Aboriginal peoples. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Roberts receives funding from the Max Planck Society, the European Research Council, and National Geographic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Buhrich, Asa Ferrier, and Gerry Turpin do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australians should see the rainforest as a cultural landscape – one that has been managed and maintained by people, rather than just a relic unchanged since the dinosaurs.Barry Hunter, Djabugay Aboriginal Corporation, Kuranda, Indigenous KnowledgeAlice Buhrich, Adjunct Researcher, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook UniversityAsa Ferrier, Honorary Research Associate, La Trobe UniversityGerry Turpin, Ethnobotanist, James Cook UniversityPatrick Roberts, Research Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of GeoanthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559412021-02-24T19:07:18Z2021-02-24T19:07:18ZBeyond Juukan Gorge, the relentless threat mining poses to the Pilbara cultural landscape<p>Just as the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge">parliamentary inquiry</a> into Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters was reconvening in Canberra, another culturally significant site was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/23/aboriginal-rock-shelter-in-pilbara-damaged-after-bhp-promised-not-to-disturb-heritage-sites">damaged</a> at one of BHP’s iron ore mines in the Pilbara.</p>
<p>This latest rock shelter, a registered site for the Banjima peoples, was reportedly damaged by a rockfall in late January. BHP said the site was not part of its current mining operations and the cause of the rockfall was not known. </p>
<p>Both incidents make clear the invidious and relentless threat to Aboriginal cultural heritage in the Pilbara (and elsewhere in Australian mining regions). </p>
<p>The destruction of one ancient and sacred rock shelter is, of course, devastating. But there’s a greater and as yet unrecognised loss to cultural heritage that is occurring from the “cumulative impacts” of mining activities in the Pilbara. It’s destruction by a thousand cuts. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1364351865933103104"}"></div></p>
<h2>A heavily industrialised landscape</h2>
<p>It is difficult for most people to imagine the scale of the iron ore and gas operations in the region. Large swathes of this remote and ecologically delicate environment (a global <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/WAM_Supp78(B)_HALSEetal%20pp443-483.pdf">biodiversity hotspot</a> for <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=wa+museum+subterranean+fauna+stygofauna&FORM=SSRE">subterranean fauna</a>) have been transformed over the last several decades into a heavily industrialised landscape.</p>
<p>There are more than 25 industrial-scale iron ore mines in the Pilbara. Of these, Rio Tinto owns 16. They are part of an <a href="https://www.riotinto.com/en/operations/australia/pilbara">integrated network</a> to transport iron ore out of the region, which includes four independent port terminals, a 1,700-kilometre rail network and other related infrastructure.</p>
<p><a href="https://cmewa.com.au/about/wa-resources/iron-ore/">Western Australia’s iron ore sales</a> have more than doubled over the past decade from 317 million tonnes in 2008-09 to 794 million tonnes in 2018-19. This was worth more than A$4.4 billion in royalties to the WA government in 2018. </p>
<h2>Ancestral paths are being ‘boxed up’</h2>
<p>As a submission to the parliamentary inquiry from the <a href="http://wintawariguruma.com.au/">Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation</a> stated, more than 93% of their Country is covered by mining tenements. There are seven mines in total, most owned by Rio Tinto. </p>
<p>This group is not unusual. The neighbouring Yinhawangka have four Rio Tinto mines on their Country, plus others owned by different companies, including FMG.</p>
<p>Under the current <a href="https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_3_homepage.html">WA Aboriginal Heritage Act</a>, the focus of heritage protection efforts is on tangible (often archaeological) sites defined as discrete “way-points” on a map and separated from the cultural landscape that supports them. </p>
<p>But this is a core misunderstanding of cultural heritage management. <a href="https://australia.icomos.org/resources/australia-icomos-heritage-toolkit/intangible-cultural-heritage/">Intangible</a> or ethnographic sites, which are rarely visible to non-Indigenous people or those who are not customary knowledge holders, struggle to find recognition. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-masters-of-the-future-or-heirs-of-the-past-mining-history-and-indigenous-ownership-153879">Friday essay: masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These intangible sites are part of the interconnected spiritual journey known as “dreaming tracks” and “<a href="https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/songlines">song-lines</a>”. For the knowledge holders, these ancestral paths represent a fundamental truth of connection to Country.</p>
<p>However, as mining activity intensifies in the Pilbara, even if certain “sites” are protected, these ancestral paths are being “boxed up” and cut off from one another. </p>
<p>This is because the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act assesses applications and projects on an individual basis, without reference to the cumulative impacts of mining activities or the bigger picture of regional and national heritage. </p>
<h2>What are cumulative impacts?</h2>
<p>These cumulative impacts <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge/Submissions">include such things as</a> </p>
<p>1) loss of access to sacred sites, cultural places (including customary harvest grounds) and cultural materials </p>
<p>2) loss of cultural integrity of cultural places through destruction of Country in close proximity </p>
<p>3) loss through indirect effects, such as increased dust, vibration and noise</p>
<p>4) diminished amenities and visual integrity.</p>
<p>In 2015, BHP prepared <a href="https://www.bhp.com/-/media/bhp/regulatory-information-media/iron-ore/western-australia-iron-ore/0000/impact-assessment-report/160316_ironore_waio_pilbarastrategicassessment_commonwealth_appendix4_part1.pdf">a “cumulative impact assessment”</a> of its direct and indirect mining footprint in the Pilbara. The authors indicated it was the first of its kind for the region. </p>
<p>Though the focus was purely on the environmental effects of mining activities — not cultural effects — the results are nonetheless revealing. </p>
<p>The authors listed five species from the region, including the olive python and the northern quoll, that are now considered “vulnerable” or “endangered”. These species also have great significance for traditional owners. Yet, they were not engaged in the cumulative impact assessment process.</p>
<p>To the best of our knowledge, none of the major mining companies in the Pilbara have undertaken cumulative impact assessments for Indigenous cultural heritage that encompass the entirety of their operational footprint. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-mining-state-be-pro-heritage-vital-steps-to-avoid-another-juukan-gorge-146211">Can a mining state be pro-heritage? Vital steps to avoid another Juukan Gorge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Land access protocols, locked gates and PPE</h2>
<p>The ability of traditional owners to access Country to care for it, maintain their obligations to it, monitor the effects of mining operations and ensure inter-generational knowledge transfer is another sensitive issue. </p>
<p>Many groups in the Pilbara have “land access protocols” with the companies operating on their land. A <a href="http://www.yinhawangka.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Land-Access-Protocol-Greater-Paraburdoo-2020.pdf">publicly available protocol</a> between the Yinhawangka and Rio Tinto gives insight into the strict visitation parameters for the company’s mining leases and tenements.</p>
<p>For instance, the “general conditions” require visitors to have vehicles fitted with a suitable UHF radio set to the sign-posted channels. </p>
<p>The requirements also include </p>
<blockquote>
<p>providing information of all the areas that you plan to visit within the … mining lease area, the number of people/vehicles in your group, the date and time that access is required and the duration of your trip. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Each person entering a mining lease must also “meet the minimum PPE requirements”. </p>
<p>Though we recognise the need to manage for occupational health and safety, such intensive requirements would make access extremely difficult and unrealistic for many people, especially the elderly and children.</p>
<p>Land access protocols do not just apply to mining leases, but also to pastoral leases, which are owned by the companies to facilitate the development of mining operations and ensure land access. Rio Tinto owns six such leases in the Pilbara. </p>
<p>The visitation rights for these pastoral leases are similarly strict. The protocols for <a href="http://www.yinhawangka.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Land-Access-Protocol-Rocklea-Station-2020.pdf">Rocklea station</a>, for instance, allow native title holders to camp for no more than three nights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/juukan-gorge-inquiry-puts-rio-tinto-on-notice-but-without-drastic-reforms-it-could-happen-again-151377">Juukan Gorge inquiry puts Rio Tinto on notice, but without drastic reforms, it could happen again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The importance of conservation agreements</h2>
<p><a href="https://consultation.dplh.wa.gov.au/aboriginal-heritage/aboriginal-heritage-bill-2020/">WA’s draft new heritage laws</a> contain the phrase “cultural landscapes”, which is a step in the right direction. </p>
<p>However, to truly protect cultural heritage and accommodate Aboriginal rights and interests requires conservation agreements, similar to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-mining-state-be-pro-heritage-vital-steps-to-avoid-another-juukan-gorge-146211">Murujuga</a> agreements made between the Commonwealth and both Rio Tinto and Woodside in the Pilbara. </p>
<p>The state government would have to forgo some mining royalties and, in line with recommendations by the parliamentary inquiry, native title holders would have the right to protect sites and declare areas “no-go zones”. </p>
<p>This has been the successful model under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00117">Aboriginal Land Rights Act</a> in the NT for more than 40 years. Such a model <a href="https://www.academia.edu/4539641/Nourishing_Terrains_Australian_Aboriginal_views_of_Landscape_and_Wilderness_Australian_Heritage_Commission_Canberra_1996_">recognises</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the interdependence of all life within Country constitutes a hard but essential lesson – those who destroy their Country ultimately destroy themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The risk is that if decisive and strong measures aren’t taken, large swathes of the Pilbara will become desecration zones, or “sterilisation” zones, as some Aboriginal groups have termed the industrial mining landscape. </p>
<p>This will be the legacy, not only for the mining companies, but for Australia and most painfully, for the traditional owners who remain long after the miners have gone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Holcombe is a Senior Research Fellow at CSRM which conducts applied research with communities and Indigenous representative bodies, governments, mining companies and, currently, the Cooperative Research Centre for Transitions in Mining Economies (CRC TiME). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Fredericks was the BHP Chair in Indigenous Engagement at CQUniversity from 2013-2018. </span></em></p>The destruction of one ancient rock shelter is devastating. But there’s a greater loss to cultural heritage that is occurring from the ‘cumulative impacts’ of mining operations in WA.Sarah Holcombe, Senior Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandBronwyn Fredericks, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1506742020-11-29T19:06:51Z2020-11-29T19:06:51ZVictoria just gave 2 billion litres of water back to Indigenous people. Here’s what that means for the rest of Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371657/original/file-20201127-22-1kal3ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4121%2C2731&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the first time in Victoria’s history, the state government has <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/water-traditional-owners-victorian-first">handed back</a> water to traditional owners, giving them rights to a river system they have managed sustainably for thousands of years. </p>
<p>The two billion litres of water returned to the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (<a href="https://gunaikurnai.org.au/">GLaWAC</a>) this month means traditional owners can now determine how and where water is used for cultural, environmental or economic purposes.</p>
<p>The decision recognises that water rights are crucial for Indigenous people to restore customs, protect their culture, become economically independent and heal Country. </p>
<p>The hand-back to Gunaikurnai people is the crucial first step in a bigger, statewide process of recognising Indigenous people’s deep connection to water. It also serves as an example to the rest of Australia, where Indigenous rights to water are <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">grossly inadequate</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Water from the river has" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371687/original/file-20201127-23-1rn3fs1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gunaikurnai woman Alice Pepper on the banks of the Mitchell River. Water from the river has been handed back to traditional owners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Water’s rightful home</h2>
<p>Gunaikurnai people hold <a href="https://www.justice.vic.gov.au/your-rights/native-title/gunaikurnai-native-title-agreement">native title</a> over much of Gippsland, from the mountains to the sea. </p>
<p>The water hand-back comes ten years since this native title was secured, and since Gunaikurnai people entered into the state’s first Traditional Owner Settlement Agreement with the government. Under this agreement, GLaWAC is a <a href="https://gunaikurnai.org.au/jointly-managed-parks-reserves/">joint manager</a>, with Parks Victoria, of ten parks and reserves in Gippsland, including the Mitchell River National Park.</p>
<p>Victorian water minister Lisa Neville said the hand-back was a key milestone in her government’s 2016 <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/water-for-victoria/progress-report-recognising-and-managing-for-aboriginal-values/implementationrecognising-and-managing-for-aboriginal-values">Aboriginal Water Policy</a>. That plan aims to:</p>
<ul>
<li>recognise Aboriginal values and objectives of water</li>
<li>include Aboriginal values and traditional ecological knowledge in water planning</li>
<li>support Aboriginal access to water for economic development</li>
<li>build capacity to increase Aboriginal participation in water management.</li>
</ul>
<p>GLaWAC engages closely with government agencies that control how water is shared and used and these partnerships are highly valued. But it is only through owning water that traditional owners can really control how water is used to care for Country and for people.</p>
<p>For the moment, the water will be staying in the river. Its use will be decided after discussions between GLaWAC and Gunaikurnai community members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Mitchell River" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371658/original/file-20201127-14-18wex8i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous poeple must own water to control how they care for Country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to water ownership</h2>
<p>In 2016, the Victorian government committed A$5 million to a plan to increase Aboriginal access to water rights, including funding for traditional owners to develop feasibility plans to support <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/493455/AWP_Progress-Snapshot-brochure-October_FINAL-WEB.pdf">water-based businesses</a>. </p>
<p>There are significant barriers to reallocating water to Victoria’s traditional owners. Water is expensive to buy, hold and use. Annual fees and charges can easily run to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468312418300348?via%3Dihub">tens of thousands of dollars a year</a> in some locations. </p>
<p>Using water to care for Country supports well-being, the environment and other water uses, including tourism and recreation. But, unlike using water for irrigation, there may not be any direct economic return from a water hand-back. This means water recovery for traditional owners must include ways to cover fees and charges.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Victoria’s water entitlement framework is also consumption-based – it is designed for water to be taken out of rivers, not left in. This can make it hard for traditional owners to leave water in the river for the benefit of the environment. So water entitlements and rules should be changed to reflect how traditional owners want to manage water.</p>
<p>Lastly, many traditional owners lack access to land where they can use the water. Or they may wish to use water in areas that, under natural conditions, would be watered when rivers flood, but which are now disconnected from the waterway. To help overcome this, traditional owners should be given access to Crown land, including joint management of parks. GLaWAC’s partnership agreements are a good example of how this might happen in future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="GLaWAC water team Uncle Lloyd Hood and Tim Paton." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371689/original/file-20201127-17-i7nutr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GLaWAC water team Uncle Lloyd Hood and Tim Paton. Water rules should be changed to reflect how traditional owners manage water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Change is possible</h2>
<p>While significant barriers to water access remain, this hand-back shows how real water outcomes for traditional owners can be achieved when there is political will and ministerial support.</p>
<p>The water is part of six billion litres on the Mitchell River <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/52883/DSE_GRWS_accessible_linked.pdf">identified</a> as unallocated, meaning no-one yet has rights over it. The remaining four billion litres will be made available on the open market, for use by irrigators or other industries. It can be extracted only during the colder months from <a href="http://www.srw.com.au/mitchell-river-winterfill/">July 1 to October 31</a>.</p>
<p>The extraction and use of the water by Gunaikurnai people will be linked to specific locations, and the licence is up for renewal every 15 years. GLaWAC will work with state agency Southern Rural Water to ensure that the licence conditions match the water plans of traditional owners.</p>
<p>This step is crucial. There have been many instances in other states where traditional owners have obtained water, but been <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">unable to use it</a> due to barriers on how it can be used, and annual fees and charges.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mitchell River scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371690/original/file-20201127-21-1ufaa2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water extraction form the Mitchell River will be limited to colder months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GLaWAC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming a history of injustice</h2>
<p>Traditional owners across Australia <a href="https://www.mldrin.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Echuca-Declaration-Final-PDF.pdf">never ceded</a> their rights to water. Yet Aboriginal people own <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">less than 1%</a> of the nation’s water rights. Righting this wrong is the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/29/ending-aqua-nullius-calls-for-laws-to-protect-indigenous-water-rights">unfinished business</a>” of national water reform.</p>
<p>Even when political commitments are made, there has been little progress. For example, in 2018 the federal government committed A$40 million to acquire water rights for Aboriginal people <a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">in the Murray-Darling Basin</a>, but no purchase of water rights has yet occurred.</p>
<p>This woeful and unjust situation is also reflected in Victoria. Before the Gunaikurnai hand-back, only a tiny handful of Aboriginal-owned organisations and one traditional owner, <a href="https://taungurung.com.au/">Taungurung</a>, owned water rights in Victoria, and the volumes were small. In these cases, water recovery was not a formal hand-back from the state, and included a donation from a farmer. </p>
<p>Across Australia, Aboriginal people are watching the Victorian water reform process with great interest. The water returned to Gunaikurnai people builds momentum, and increases pressure on governments across Australia to take water justice seriously.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Troy McDonald is the Chair of the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC). Troy is also the GLaWAC representative on the First Peoples Treaty Assembly.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin O'Donnell receives funding from Murray and Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN), as part of a larger programme funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria). She has also consulted to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria).</span></em></p>The decision recognises that water rights are critical for Indigenous people to restore customs, protect their culture, become economically independent and heal Country.Troy McDonald, Chairman of Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous KnowledgeErin O'Donnell, Early Career Academic Fellow, Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174062019-05-24T02:30:50Z2019-05-24T02:30:50ZAs the dust of the election settles, Australia’s wildlife still needs a pathway for recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276092/original/file-20190523-187157-lwgrwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Darling River near Louth NSW, April 2019, in the midst of a drought compounded by upstream irrigation policies.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jaana Dielenberg</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The environment was a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-08/australians-think-climate-change-bigger-threat-than-terrorism/11091276">key</a> <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/the-10-things-that-worry-voters-most-and-how-that-s-changed-since-the-last-election-20190418-p51ffy.html">concern</a> in the recent federal election. It was also a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-20/what-happened-to-the-climate-change-vote/11128128">polarising one</a>, with concerns raised about regional industries and livelihoods. But jobs and environment need not be locked in battle: there are pathways that secure a better future for both our environment and future generations.</p>
<p>It’s just over two weeks since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-change-needed-to-stop-unprecedented-global-extinction-crisis-116166">global announcement</a> that extinction looms for about a million species. The warning may have been partially lost in the noise of Australia’s election campaign, but it should resonate long after the political dust settles. This scale of loss will have catastrophic consequences not only for nature, but for us too.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-change-needed-to-stop-unprecedented-global-extinction-crisis-116166">'Revolutionary change' needed to stop unprecedented global extinction crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The good news is many of the key steps to addressing Australia’s ecological challenges are also wins for jobs, industry and social well-being. Others involve more difficult choices, but could be helped with careful strategic planning and the active involvement of all those with a stake. All require factoring in costs and benefits not only to our generation, but also to generations of the future.</p>
<p>Here are seven suggestions to get us started.</p>
<p><strong>1. Support wildlife-friendly agriculture</strong></p>
<p>More than 60% of Australia is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Price4/publication/230817486_Impacts_of_red_meat_production_on_biodiversity_in_Australia_A_review_and_comparison_with_alternative_protein_production_industries/links/5449dc3f0cf2f6388084d5f2/Impacts-of-red-meat-production-on-biodiversity-in-Australia-A-review-and-comparison-with-alternative-protein-production-industries.pdf">managed for agricultural production</a>. Agriculture is a major driver of species loss both <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Price4/publication/230817486_Impacts_of_red_meat_production_on_biodiversity_in_Australia_A_review_and_comparison_with_alternative_protein_production_industries/links/5449dc3f0cf2f6388084d5f2/Impacts-of-red-meat-production-on-biodiversity-in-Australia-A-review-and-comparison-with-alternative-protein-production-industries.pdf">at home</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/biodiversity-the-ravages-of-guns-nets-and-bulldozers-1.20381">abroad</a>. Yet we know it is possible to <a href="https://www-publish-csiro-au.virtual.anu.edu.au/book/7844/">manage our agricultural landscapes</a> for wildlife and productivity. Actions like restoring native vegetation, establishing shelterbelts, and creating wildlife-friendly farm dams can help maintain or even boost farms’ productivity and resilience, including in times of drought. </p>
<p>Many farmers are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-18/farmers-use-regenerative-agriculture-to-fuel-biodiversity/11111066">already doing this</a> but their efforts are <a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-land-clearing-is-undermining-australias-environmental-progress-54882">undermined by policy instability</a>. Political leadership and incentives such as stewardship payments and direct carbon investments are needed to support farmers as they increasingly support the nature from which we all benefit.</p>
<p><strong>2. Nature-based solutions for our cities</strong></p>
<p>About 90% of Australians <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTANNREP2013/Resources/9304887-1377201212378/9305896-1377544753431/1_AnnualReport2013_EN.pdf">live in cities</a>, and the rapid expansion of our urban areas brings serious livability challenges. Urban nature <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-density-cities-need-greening-to-stay-healthy-and-liveable-75840https:/theconversation.com/higher-density-cities-need-greening-to-stay-healthy-and-liveable-75840">can be a key part of the solution</a>, providing a remarkable range of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-walk-in-the-woods-really-does-help-your-body-and-your-soul-53227">health and well-being benefits</a>.</p>
<p>Urban greenery <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-planners-understand-its-cool-to-green-cities-whats-stopping-them-55753">keeps cities cooler</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-and-cool-roofs-provide-relief-for-hot-cities-but-should-be-sited-carefully-60766">improves air quality</a>, and even <a href="https://treenet.org/resources/urban-trees-worth-more-than-they-cost/">boosts economic prosperity</a>. </p>
<p>Cities can be <a href="https://www.conservationmagazine.org/2016/01/threatened-species-live-in-every-australian-city/">hotspots for threatened species</a>, and are justifiable locations for investing in nature for its own sake. There is substantial opportunity to create policy and regulation that can allow investment and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-to-design-cities-where-people-and-nature-can-both-flourish-102849">innovation in nature-based solutions in cities</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. Help Indigenous Australians care for natural heritage</strong></p>
<p>Indigenous people prospered for millennia in Australia by forging deep connections with land, water and sky. But these connections are ever harder to maintain in the face of two centuries of colonialism and disruption to traditional lore and custom. </p>
<p>Traditional ownership is now recognised for <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173876">nearly half of Australia’s protected area estate</a>. Increasing investment in Indigenous ranger programs from the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-rangers-dont-receive-the-funding-they-deserve-heres-why-115916">6% of the conservation estate budget</a> and incorporating traditional knowledge could deliver many social, environmental and economic benefits. </p>
<p>Long-term stability with these programs provides for <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/projects/close-gap-indigenous-health">healthy communities</a>, maintains connection to country, and delivers enormous environmental benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276241/original/file-20190523-187189-8jtij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Foreshore revegetation is one process that can help species recover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. Invest in species recovery</strong></p>
<p>Many valiant efforts to help threatened species are undertaken by dedicated groups with often limited resources. They have shown that <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7705/">success is possible</a>. But to prevent extinctions we need much greater investment in strategic and committed management of species, and of pervasive threats like changed fire regimes and changed water flows. Australia’s investment in biodiversity conservation is <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/110/29/12144">low</a> compared with other countries, particularly in light of our high rates of <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/15/4531">species loss</a>. </p>
<p>Investing in <a href="https://www.esasuccess.org/2016/index.html">threatened species</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24295?draft=journal&proof=trueIn">conservation</a> works. Involving the community in recovery actions can also create employment, skills and many other benefits, especially to rural and Indigenous communities.</p>
<p><strong>5. Build strategically important safe havens and strengthen biosecurity</strong></p>
<p>Much of Australia’s wildlife is threatened by introduced species – predators, herbivores, weeds and disease. Chytrid fungus, introduced through the pet trade, has <a href="https://theconversation.com/deadly-frog-fungus-has-wiped-out-90-species-and-threatens-hundreds-more-113846">devastated frog populations</a>. New pathogens like myrtle rust, which affects many Australian plants, look <a href="http://www.apbsf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Myrtle-rust-action-plan_accessible.pdf">set to repeat</a> this scale of loss. Invasive predators such as cats and foxes are the single biggest threat to most of Australia’s threatened mammals, some of which <a href="http://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/publications-tools/protecting-australian-mammals-from-introduced-cats-and-foxes-the-current-status-and-future-growth-of">survive only on islands and inside fenced areas</a>. </p>
<p>Strong biosecurity, of the kind that has long helped Australian agriculture, is vital to prevent introductions of new invasive species. New havens are needed in <a href="http://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/publications-tools/protecting-australian-mammals-from-introduced-cats-and-foxes-the-current-status-and-future-growth-of">strategic locations</a>, underpinned by national coordination and partnerships, to help protect species like the central rock rat that are still not safe from predators.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275568/original/file-20190521-23817-e0xn7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Invasive species harm Australia’s native wildlife.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/red-fox-vulpes-victoria-great-ocean-167504885?src=xDavVKa2ssDl89F6Z9NuTg-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>6. Support integrated environmental assessments</strong></p>
<p>Regional development, mining and urban expansion are part of our economy. They can also harm species and ecosystems. </p>
<p>Improving resourcing for decisions about environmental approvals can ensure they are underpinned by sound science. Independent <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Faunalextinction/Interim%20report/c04">oversight and review</a> could help ensure environmental approvals are credible, transparent, and consistent with Australia’s conservation commitments. Strengthening and expanding protections for critical habitat could ensure our most vulnerable wildlife is protected.</p>
<p>Development can be designed to avoid wholesale devastation or “<a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/australian-environment-act-report-independent-review-environment-protection-and">death by 1,000 cuts</a>”. But ensuring that crucial species habitats are protected will require careful planning based on strong environmental and social science. Applying existing provisions for integrated environmental assessments, fully resourcing these processes, and ensuring all affected people – including local and Indigenous communities – are involved from the start, can help plan a future that works for industries, communities and natural and cultural heritage.</p>
<p><strong>7. Minimise and adapt to climate change, including by investing in biodiversity</strong></p>
<p>Climate change threatens our communities, economy, health, and wildlife – it is changing our country as we know it. It has already contributed to the extinction of species such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-australian-animal-slips-away-to-extinction-36203">Bramble Cay Melomys</a>. Impacts will certainly worsen, but by how much depends on whether we take strong action. </p>
<p>Many communities, businesses and governments are aiming to tackle climate change. Strategies such as greening cities to reduce heat islands can help native species too. Investing in biodiversity-rich carbon storage (such as old growth forests) can boost regional economies. Options include restoring native ecosystems, boosting soil carbon, managing fire, and transitioning native forests from timber harvesting to being <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/ES14-00051.1">managed for carbon</a>, while sourcing wood products from plantations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/government-needs-to-front-up-billions-not-millions-to-save-australias-threatened-species-74250">Government needs to front up billions, not millions, to save Australia's threatened species</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our economy, communities, cultures, health and livelihoods depend on environmental infrastructure – clean water, clean air, good soils, native vegetation and animals. As with Indigenous sense of place and identities they are entangled with the creatures that share our unique and diverse continent. We steal from future generations every time a species is lost.</p>
<p>For our sake and that of our descendants, we cannot afford to disregard this essential connection. Investing in natural infrastructure, just as we invest in our built infrastructure, is the sort of <a href="https://www.ipbes.net/">transformational change</a> needed to ensure our communities and economy continue to flourish.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Morgain receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Recovery Hub.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley J. Moggridge receives funding from the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Recovery Hub.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Wintle has received research funding through a variety of research fundings agreements from The Australian Research Council (ARC), the Victorian, NSW, Queensland, Australian and multiple local Governments, Bush Heritage Australia, The Nature Conservancy, the Helmholtz Institute and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lindenmayer receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australian Government, and the Government of Victoria</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Woinarski receives research funding from the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martine Maron receives funding from a range of sources including the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub, the Science for Nature and People Partnership, and The New South Wales Environment Trust. She provides advice to several State and Federal government environment agencies as well as WWF-Australia, is a Director of BirdLife Australia, and is a member of the Ecological Society of Austrralia's Academic Freedom Working Group, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers, and two threatened species recovery teams.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bekessy receives funding from The National Environment Science Program through the Threatened Species Recovery Hub and the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP160100324) and the H2020 project Urban Greenup. She is a Board member of Bush Heritage Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Legge receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub and Rangelands NRM. She is a Board member of the Wandiyali Restoration Trust and provides advice to a range of government and non-government organisations (Bush Heritage Australia, Wild Deserts, Yawuru IPA, Biosecurity Qld, Academy of Science's NCEEC, Birdlife TSC, IUCN MMSC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub and BirdLife Australia. He provides advice to a range of government and non-government organisations (Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Birdlife Australia, BirdLife International, Convention on Migratory Species).</span></em></p>In the event, the federal election turned out to be more about the economy than the environment. But there are steps the Coalition government can take to help conservation and boost the economy too.Rachel Morgain, Knowledge Broker, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National UniversityBradley J. Moggridge, Indigenous Water Research, University of CanberraBrendan Wintle, Professor Conservation Ecology, The University of MelbourneDavid Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National UniversityJohn Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin UniversityMartine Maron, ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandSarah Bekessy, Professor, RMIT UniversitySarah Legge, Professor, Australian National UniversityStephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162622019-05-01T05:41:12Z2019-05-01T05:41:12ZUranium mines harm Indigenous people – so why have we approved a new one?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271924/original/file-20190501-39948-1c78u5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5176%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Walking for Country with Walkatjurra Walkabout from 2011 - 2018. Aboriginal communities across Australia continue to mobilise against government decisions that ignore claims to native title. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://walkingforcountry.com/">Walking for Country</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week the federal government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-26/government-approved-uranium-mine-day-before-election/11047252">approved</a> the Yeelirrie uraniam mine in Western Australia in the face of vigorous protest from traditional owners.</p>
<p>This Canadian-owned uranium mine is the newest instalment in Australia’s long tradition of ignoring the dignity and welfare of Aboriginal communities in the pursuit of nuclear fuel. </p>
<p>For decades, Australia’s desert regions have experienced uranium prospecting, mining, waste dumping and nuclear weapons testing. Settler-colonial perceptions that these lands were “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=5wqFDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">uninhabited</a>” led to widespread environmental degradation at the hands of the nuclear industry. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-worth-wiping-out-a-species-for-the-yeelirrie-uranium-mine-116059">It's not worth wiping out a species for the Yeelirrie uranium mine</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As early as 1906, South Australia’s <a href="http://www.energymining.sa.gov.au/minerals/mining/former_mines/radium_hill_mine">Radium Hill</a> was mined for radium. Amateur prospectors mined haphazardly, damaging Ngadjuri and Wilyakali lands. And an estimated 100,000 tonnes of <a href="http://www.tailings.info/basics/tailings.htm">toxic mine residue</a> (tailings) remain at Radium Hill with the potential to leach radioactive material into the environment. </p>
<p>Uranium mines across Australia have similar legacies, with <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/jabiru">decades of activism</a> from the Mirarr people against the Ranger and Jabiluka mine sites in Kakadu National Park.</p>
<p>In the 36 years since it began operating, the Ranger mine has produced over <a href="http://www.energyres.com.au/uploads/docs/2017_ERA_AnnualReport_ebook.pdf">125,000 tonnes of uranium</a> and experienced more than 200 accidents. In 2013, a reported <a href="http://www.mirarr.net/uranium-mining">one million litres of contaminated material</a> leaked from a Ranger tank (the spill was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/era-avoids-charges-over-radioactive-slurry-spill/7163560">contained to the site)</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rangers-toxic-spill-highlights-the-perils-of-self-regulation-21409">Ranger's toxic spill highlights the perils of self-regulation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Aboriginal communities remain at a disproportionate risk because large uranium deposits exist in lands deemed sacred and significant, while the testing and dumping of nuclear material is rarely undertaken in areas inhabited by settlers.</p>
<p>The federal government’s ambivalence toward these impacts has most recently culminated in their decision to give <a href="https://www.camecoaustralia.com/projects/yeelirrie">Cameco</a> the go-ahead for the Yeelirrle uranium mine, a blow to the traditional owners of Tjiwarl country. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1102449936317251585"}"></div></p>
<h2>Native title fails to protect traditional owners from the mining industry</h2>
<p>The Tjiwarl people have fought the Yeelirrie mine alongside the <a href="https://thewest.com.au/business/uranium/battle-against-yeelirrie-uranium-mine-continues-for-traditional-owners-and-conservation-council-ng-b881125927z">Conservation Council of WA</a> for more than two years. They now must grapple with the government’s decision to ignore their resistance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/traditional-owners-still-stand-in-adanis-way-115454">Traditional owners still stand in Adani's way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the Tjiwarl people are not alone. Aboriginal communities across Australia continue to engage with and mobilise against government decisions to ignore native title claimants. </p>
<p>As set out in Australian law, <a href="https://www.klc.org.au/what-is-native-title">native title</a> is the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to the land and waters, guided by traditional law and customs.</p>
<p>Aboriginal communities <a href="http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Documents/Minerals/Process_for_Determining_Mining_Act_applications(1).pdf">have an opportunity</a> to object to a mining application, 35 days before the outcome of the application is determined. A complex appeals process follows. </p>
<p>But even in the face of significant complaints, mining applications are more often than not approved. This has led to people mobilising internationally. </p>
<p>And in 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (<a href="http://www.icanw.org/the-treaty/">ICAN</a>) negotiated with the United Nations to create a treaty banning nuclear weapons. The treaty, adopted on July 7, 2017, recognised the disproportionate impact nuclear material has on Indigenous communities around the world. It includes the mining and milling of uranium. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271667/original/file-20190430-194606-vkggsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kokatha woman Sue Coleman-Haseldine speaking at the UN on behalf of ICAN.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">InternationalCampaignToAbolishNuclearWeapons/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The treaty <a href="https://www.un.org/disarmament/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/tpnw-info-kit-v2.pdf">warns</a> that parties should be: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>mindful of the unacceptable suffering of and harm caused to the
victims of the use of nuclear weapons (hibakusha), as well as of those
affected by the testing of nuclear weapons, [and recognise] the disproportionate impact of nuclear-weapon activities on indigenous peoples.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Nuclear weapons sourced from Aboriginal lands</h2>
<p>The toxic legacy of uranium mining is not isolated to the contamination of ecosystems. </p>
<p>Radium Hill <a href="http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/australia.aspx">provided uranium</a> for weapons for the United Kingdom and United States, including the nuclear weapons tested at Maralinga and Emu Field in the 1950s and 1960s.</p>
<p>These weapons spread radioactive contamination and dispossessed Aboriginal communities in and around the <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sas-nuclear-debate-the-states-controversial-history-of-atomic-tests-and-uranium-mining/news-story/ac98c44cb425ce43273dbc67a799ff13">Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara</a> (APY) lands.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271662/original/file-20190430-194637-10zt99u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1982 image of Ranger Uranium Mine visable across Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/PhotoDetail.aspx?Barcode=11854163">National Archives of Australia, A6135, K2/3/82/62</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Uranium from the Ranger mine in Northern Territory found its way into the Fukushima Reactor, a reality that plagues the Mirrar people. In 2011, traditional owner <a href="http://www.mirarr.net/uranium-mining">Yvonne Margarula</a> expressed her sorrow for those affected by the Fukushima meltdown: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is likely that the radiation problems at Fukushima are, at least in part, fuelled by uranium derived from our traditional lands. This makes us feel very sad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These legacies are felt acutely by those who continue to struggle with the lack of protection from native title and other government policies apparently designed to prevent the exploitation of Aboriginal communities by various industries.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-indigenous-nationhood-to-replace-a-failing-colonial-authority-114088">It's time for Indigenous nationhood to replace a failing colonial authority</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the 1970s, when the Ranger mine opened, the Mirarr people felt largely powerless in negotiations between mining companies and the federal government. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-26/government-approved-uranium-mine-day-before-election/11047252">Last week</a>, the Tjiwarl experienced similar disempowerment. Yet both communities are recognised by the government as traditional owners.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, Australia is yet to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, continuing the persistently toxic legacy of Australia’s nuclear industry.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A previous version of this article stated a 2013 leak at the Ranger mine spilled radioactive material into the “surrounding environment.” The leak was contained on the site.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Urwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Yeelirrie uranium mine is the latest instalment in Australia’s long tradition of ignoring the dignity and welfare of Aboriginal communities in the pursuit of nuclear fuel.Jessica Urwin, PhD Candidate, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080382018-12-03T05:40:28Z2018-12-03T05:40:28ZAdani’s new mini version of its mega mine still faces some big hurdles<p>Indian mining multinational Adani has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-29/adani-carmichael-coal-mine-go-ahead-plans-to-self-fund/10567848">announced</a> that it will self-fund a significantly smaller coal mine in the Galilee Basin, after failing to secure finance from <a href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/media-release-commbanks-refusal-to-finance-adani-coal-mine/">more than 30 domestic and international banks and lenders</a>.</p>
<p>Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-29/adani-carmichael-coal-mine-go-ahead-plans-to-self-fund/10567848">described</a> Adani as a “little Aussie battler” and praised the newly scaled-down project’s purported regional economic benefits.</p>
<p>The scaling down of the project has been extensive. Adani Mining chief executive Lucas Dow said the mine will cost A$2 billion and initially produce up to 15 million tonnes of thermal coal per year, with plans to ramp production up to 27.5 million tonnes per year. </p>
<p>That is far more modest than the A$16.5 billion investment in digging up 60 million tonnes of coal a year which the company first announced in 2010. The original plan was to transport the coal along a new 388km rail line to a specially built terminal at Adani’s Abbot Point coal port, for export to India. Under the scaled-down version of the project, Adani will need to secure access to existing rail infrastructure.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/infographic-heres-exactly-what-adanis-carmichael-mine-means-for-queensland-87684">Infographic: here's exactly what Adani's Carmichael mine means for Queensland</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there is still no guarantee that the mine will necessarily go ahead. Opening a new coal mine – even one with a relatively modest A$2 billion price tag – is socially and environmentally irresponsible, given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uns-1-5-c-special-climate-report-at-a-glance-104547">urgency with which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says</a> we need to reduce global greenhouse emissions, the fact that Australia is <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-on-track-to-reach-2030-paris-target-but-the-potential-is-there-102725">not currently on track to meet its own emissions targets</a>, and of course the fact that 2018 is on course to become the <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201807">fourth-hottest year on record</a>. </p>
<p>The economics barely stack up either. A recent <a href="http://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-past-their-peak-new-south-wales-coal-export-volumes-head-towards-terminal-decline-as-markets-transition-away-from-coal/">IEEFA report</a> indicated that coal is facing a terminal decline as Asian markets make the transition to cheaper and more efficient renewable alternatives. Existing thermal coal power in India costs US$60-80 per megawatt-hour, roughly double the cost of new renewable generation. The Mundra coal plant, where much of the Adani coal was destined, is already operating under capacity and has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2018/sep/16/adanis-rail-line-cut-shows-project-is-on-life-support-but-still-a-threat-to-climate">closed for significant periods</a>. </p>
<p>Adani has decided not to proceed with its initially planned 388km rail link, and will instead aim to use the existing Aurizon rail infrastructure. However, there is a 200km gap in this link which will cost a significant amount to bridge – albeit almost certainly much less than the A$2.3 billion cost of the originally planned railway. Aurizon Network is legally obliged to consider Adani’s access application, but has not yet assessed and approved it.</p>
<h2>Environmental and Indigenous issues</h2>
<p>Then there are the existing and significant concerns regarding Adani’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-twist-in-the-adani-saga-reveals-shortcomings-in-environmental-approvals-91821">environmental management</a> of issues such as water contamination in the Caley Valley Wetlands near the Abbot Point terminal. These will not disappear just because the project has been revised. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-twist-in-the-adani-saga-reveals-shortcomings-in-environmental-approvals-91821">Latest twist in the Adani saga reveals shortcomings in environmental approvals</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Gaining the consent of Traditional Owners will also be crucial, yet the 12-member native title representation group is split down the middle. Adani’s existing Indigenous Land Use Agreement has been appealed in the High Court by the Wangan and Jagalingou people, on the basis that the group has not genuinely consented to the agreement, and that overriding native title to make way for a coalmine is socially and culturally regressive. If the court does not uphold the agreement, this would create profound difficulties for the project as they may not be able to proceed with the development of the coal mine to the extent that it interferes with Indigenous landholdings.</p>
<p>So, while the decision of Adani to self-fund a scaled-down coalmine in Queensland might indicate determination, it also suggests a resistance to, and misunderstanding of, a rapidly changing energy sector and the broader social and environmental responsibilities that this change necessitates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108038/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Hepburn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indian mining firm Adani has announced scaled-down plans for its planned Queensland coal mine, which it will now fund itself. But there are still many questions hanging over the project.Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/983902018-06-20T20:06:49Z2018-06-20T20:06:49ZNew river council will give traditional owners in the Kimberley a unified voice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223510/original/file-20180618-85863-8vx9gl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Fitzroy River in flood in 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luke Bevan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Traditional owners in Western Australia’s Kimberley region have formed a new organisation to help manage the Fitzroy River. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council could set a precedent in WA for collaborative planning between government, industry and the native title holders of an <a href="https://www.klc.org.au/kimberley-traditional-owners-establish-martuwarra-fitzroy-river-council">entire river catchment</a>.</p>
<p>The aspirations of Kimberley traditional owners to safeguard the future of the Fitzroy are consistent with those of many other Aboriginal groups, who have long been dissatisfied with mainstream approaches to managing Australia’s major river catchments. Statements such as the <a href="http://www.savanna.org.au/nailsma/publications/downloads/MLDRIN-NBAN-ECHUCA-DECLARATION-2009.pdf">Echuca Declaration</a> and the <a href="https://www.nailsma.org.au/sites/default/files/publications/Mary-River-Statement%20text%20only.pdf">Mary River Statement</a> make it clear that rivers are essential to life and traditional owners have a responsibility to protect them. </p>
<p>Large rivers flow through many different Indigenous lands. To comprehensively represent traditional owners’ rights and interests, alliances constituted at the catchment or basin scale have been formed. For example, the <a href="http://www.mldrin.org.au/">Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations</a> and the <a href="http://nban.org.au/">Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations</a> both aim to uphold traditional owners’ rights and interests in the management of the Murray-Darling Basin. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">Deal on Murray Darling Basin Plan could make history for Indigenous water rights</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The new <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59fecece017db2ab70aa1874/t/5b2871958a922daa2cd3870a/1529377177849/StatementMartuwarra+Fitzroy+River+Council+Statement+from+Combined+Meeting+of+Traditional+Owner+Groups+for+the+Fitzroy+River+Catchment%5B1%5D.pdf">Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council</a> wants to ensure that lessons are learned from experiences in the Murray-Darling Basin, where the environment has been severely degraded and Aboriginal nations were previously excluded from land and water management.</p>
<p>A 12-member delegation from the new council met with WA departmental heads in Perth this week, to advocate for support for the new management structure and the peoples who share custodianship of the river, known as Mardoowarra or Martuwarra in the Nyikina language. The council also called for a moratorium on all future water allocations until a catchment-wide management plan is in place. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223961/original/file-20180620-126566-1hadcvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council founding members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kimberley Land Council</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Fitzroy River region exemplifies the kind of social and cultural complexity that significantly challenges standard approaches to catchment management. It is home to at least 30 Aboriginal communities living on lands recognised under seven native title determinations. The river crosses seven ethno-linguistic areas with a complex array of longstanding cultural affiliations. Narratives, beliefs and practices reflect and reinforce <a href="https://www.water.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/4842/46326.pdf">deeply held cultural connections to lands and waters</a>.</p>
<p>The river and its 20 tributaries drain 100,000 square kilometres of savannah that support almost 50 pastoral stations and a rich diversity of plant and animal life. It is home to at least <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/research/records-supplements/records/fish-fauna-fitzroy-river-kimberley-region-western-australia-inc">37 species of fish</a>, including the critically endangered large-tooth sawfish, as well as many species valued by recreational and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-012-9518-z">customary fishers</a>. Tourism is significant to the economy, particularly during the warm, dry months that coincide with southern Australia’s winter. </p>
<p>For traditional owners, these beautiful landscapes and valuable fishing grounds also bear the imprint of ancestral beings who brought the world into being and continue to enliven it with their actions. All of these outstanding heritage values won the West Kimberley and the Fitzroy River <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/west-kimberley">national heritage listing</a> in 2011.</p>
<h2>Water for all</h2>
<p>The Fitzroy River is facing more water extraction and intensifying land use on its floodplains – concerns that were highlighted by traditional owners in the 2016 <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/environskimberley/pages/303/attachments/original/1512653115/fitzroy-river-declaration.pdf?1512653115">Fitzroy River Declaration</a>. It is imperative to plan and manage the competing demands on the river. But managing an entire river system in an integrated way is challenging. </p>
<p>The WA government has stated its commitment to the long-term health of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment via integrated land and water planning. It has affirmed the “<a href="https://www.walabor.org.au/platform">unique role of Indigenous people in making policy decisions about the future</a>”. </p>
<p>But Indigenous governance systems do not align with the boundaries of existing natural resource management organisations, or with the stakeholder model of political representation. Advisory committees and catchment management authorities often seek just one or two representatives of the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169411008882">many Indigenous groups</a> that are typically affected by management decisions. </p>
<p>The Daly River region of the Northern Territory illustrates this model’s shortcomings. The river is a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049180500511947?journalCode=cage20">significant ceremonial track</a>” – meaning that sacred site protection is a crucial consideration – and its catchment is home to 11 different language groups with rights and interests in the river. Traditional owners formed the <a href="http://www.savanna.org.au/nailsma/publications/kantri_laif_issue_4_2008.html?tid=604268">Daly River Aboriginal Reference Group</a> in 2005 to give all custodians a voice in land use and water allocation planning. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-law-finally-gives-voice-to-the-yarra-rivers-traditional-owners-83307">New law finally gives voice to the Yarra River's traditional owners</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If endorsed as a planning partner by the WA government, and accordingly resourced and supported, the new Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council could perform <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13241583.2017.1348887?journalCode=twar20">three important tasks</a>. </p>
<p>First, it could support the government’s catchment-wide planning process by bringing together representatives of every group that can speak for, and has knowledge of, sections of the river and its hinterland. </p>
<p>Second, it could facilitate the inclusion of Aboriginal governance principles, ecological knowledge and socioeconomic objectives in land and water policy. </p>
<p>And third, it could contribute to adaptive management by developing long-term relationships with all stakeholders in the catchment.</p>
<p>Like similar models in other parts of the country, the Martuwarra Council prompts us to think about the vital role of water in mediating not only ecological and hydrological connections, but social, cultural and political relationships too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Jackson receives funding from the Commonwealth Government's National Environmental Science Program (North Australia Environmental Resources Hub) and the Australian Research Council's Future Fellowship Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:s.laborde@griffith.edu.au">s.laborde@griffith.edu.au</a> receives funding from the Commonwealth Government's National Environmental Science Program (North Australia Environmental Resources Hub).</span></em></p>The new Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council aims to overcome a management problem faced by many traditional owners: the fact that major rivers flow through lands home to many different groups and languages.Sue Jackson, Professor, ARC Future Fellow, Griffith UniversitySarah Laborde, Postdoctoral Researcher, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/872642017-11-14T19:12:57Z2017-11-14T19:12:57ZMungo Man returns home: there is still much he can teach us about ancient Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194495/original/file-20171114-27612-es3lxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mungo Man finally returns to where he was found in the Mungo National Park. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Office of Environment and Heritage/J Spencer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The remains of the first known Australian, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/mungo-man-22205">Mungo Man</a>, today begin their return to the Willandra area of New South Wales, where they were discovered in 1974.</p>
<p>They’ll be accompanied by the remains of around 100 other Aboriginal people who lived in the Willandra landscape during the last ice age. </p>
<p>Their modern descendants, the Mutti Mutti, Paakantyi and Ngyampaa people, will receive the ancestral remains, and will ultimately decide their future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the hope is that scientists will have some access to the returned remains, which still have much to tell us about the lives of early Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<h2>The Mungo discoveries</h2>
<p>For more than a century, non-Indigenous people have collected the skeletal remains of Aboriginal Australians. This understandably created enormous resentment for many Aboriginal people who objected to the desecration of their gravesites.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194452/original/file-20171114-27635-yxpqzj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The remote landscape of the Willandra region where Mungo Man was first discovered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arthur Durband</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The removal of the remains from the Willandra was quite different, done to prevent the erosion and destruction of fragile human remains but also to make sense of their meaning. In 1967 <a href="http://www.visitmungo.com.au/who-was-mungo-lady">Mungo Woman</a>’s cremated remains were found buried in a small pit on the shores of Lake Mungo. </p>
<p>Careful excavation by scientists from the Australian National University revealed they were the world’s oldest cremation, dated to some 42,000 years ago. </p>
<p>Several years later, and only several hundred metres from where Mungo Woman was buried, <a href="http://www.visitmungo.com.au/who-was-mungo-man">Mungo Man</a> was discovered adorned in ochre that is thought to have been obtained from about 200km away to the north. </p>
<p>Mungo Man provided a further glimpse into a past that all of a sudden appeared far more complex than archaeologists across the world had previously thought possible. A picture was emerging that here, at a time when Europe was largely populated by Neanderthals, was an ancient culture of far more sophistication, full of symbolism with a thriving and complex belief system. </p>
<p>The discoveries made possible by the initial research of a young <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/14/finding-mungo-man-the-moment-australias-story-suddenly-changed">Jim Bowler</a> rewrote our understanding of human history.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/mungo-man-moves-to-national-museum-but-hes-still-not-home-49575">Some</a> have argued that <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/the-time-has-come-to-lay-mungo-man-to-rest-20160225-gn3mxq.html">42 years of scientific access</a> to the remains is long enough for research to learn everything we can from the remains.</p>
<h2>Limited research on the remains</h2>
<p>While it is true that Mungo Man was excavated in 1975 and has been in Canberra ever since, the perception that scientists have been undertaking research on his remains since this time is not accurate.</p>
<p>In reality, very few scientists, probably fewer than ten, have been privileged with the opportunity to study the remains. Very little work has been published, which is unfortunate considering the importance of these remains to human history.</p>
<p>Before 2005 only a few papers from a couple of different authors were published, dealing mainly with <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248499903056">dating</a> and comparisons with other fossil human <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248477800079">remains</a>. None of these provided an actual description of the skeletal remains of Mungo Man.</p>
<p>Science works best when a variety of perspectives are collected by different scientists working on different questions. Science has not truly had this opportunity with Mungo Man.</p>
<p>We are fortunate to be working at a time when technology allows us to understand ancient human remains in ways that couldn’t have been imagined, even ten years ago. The collection of remains from the Willandra Lakes was CT scanned only four years ago, providing a wealth of new data that can be <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248414001444">used to understand those populations</a>.</p>
<h2>Much to learn from further research</h2>
<p>The study of ancient DNA has finally progressed to the point where we can potentially learn a great deal of information from ancient skeletons.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-a-new-history-of-the-first-australians-65344">DNA from contemporary populations</a> can provide significant information, living people can never replace the information we can recover from people that lived 42,000 years ago. </p>
<p>Isotopes are geochemical signatures that can reveal how people may have moved across the landscape, from one different geological catchment to another. This type of work was recently applied to questions in other parts of Australia, where research revealed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-marsupials-once-migrated-across-an-australian-ice-age-landscape-84762">ancient megafauna were probably migratory animals</a>. </p>
<p>Further research may allow us to see how the ancient Australians interacted with the seasonal movement of the great megafauna herds and their migrations who we know now overlaped with people in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-australians-co-existed-with-the-megafauna-for-at-least-17-000-years-70589">Willandra as recently as 32,000 years ago</a>. </p>
<p>Only three of the ancient remains from the Willandra have been reliably dated, and there are more than 100 other skeletons that have no direct age estimates associated with them. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">early dates from Australia’s north</a> raise the possibility that some of the ancient remains recovered from the Willandra system may be older than those of Mungo Man and Woman. This could further rewrite the history of the peopling of Australia.</p>
<p>Who knows what will be possible as science continues to progress? It is impossible to predict what else we may be able to learn from Mungo Man and the other individuals from the Willandra as technology advances. </p>
<h2>Will the story continue?</h2>
<p>The discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman sent shockwaves through archaeology. Ancient burials with such sophisticated funerary rituals were unexpected in Pleistocene Australia. </p>
<p>The discovery forced a greater appreciation of the culture of the first Australians and was one of the main reasons that the Willandra Lakes area was given <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/167">World Heritage status</a> in 1981.</p>
<p>Those of us interested in the origins of the First Australians hope that the long overdue repatriation of Mungo Man will not mark the end of scientific work on his remains. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-australians-co-existed-with-the-megafauna-for-at-least-17-000-years-70589">Aboriginal Australians co-existed with the megafauna for at least 17,000 years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/working-with-elders-and-return-of-first-australians-remains-23838">keeping place at Lake Mungo</a> would allow for scientific work to be done in the future in greater collaboration with the Traditional Owners, while preserving the remains in a culturally appropriate and respectful way.</p>
<p>The story of the people from the ancient Willandra has been told so far by a small handful of white scientists. One day soon there will be Aboriginal scientists who will bring an entirely different approach to studying the past. A keeping place will give future generations the opportunity to seek answers to those questions.</p>
<p>As scientists interested in the study of human remains, we understand and appreciate the sensitivity involved in our work, and strive to treat these remains with the respect and dignity they deserve. </p>
<p>We are glad that Mungo Man will be returning to country, but equally we hope that he and the other 100 ancient people will be allowed to continue to tell the remarkable story of the First Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Westaway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arthur Durband receives funding from Kansas State University, and was previously funded by the Australian-American Fulbright commission. Durband has worked on the skeletal remains from the Willandra Lakes since 2005, and collected the first comprehensive set of CT scans of those remains, including Mungo Man, in 2013. </span></em></p>The remains of the first known Australian, Mungo Man, begin their journey home today. Scientists hope they’ll still get a chance to study the ancient remains, working with the Traditional Owners.Michael Westaway, Senior Research Fellow, Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversityArthur Durband, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Kansas State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/833072017-09-25T07:13:14Z2017-09-25T07:13:14ZNew law finally gives voice to the Yarra River’s traditional owners<p>On September 21, the Victorian Parliament delivered a major step forward for Victoria’s traditional owners, by passing the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/c66c392730378d9aca25814500286bb1/$FILE/581132exi1.pdf">Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017</a>. Until now, the Wurundjeri people have had little recognition of their important role in river management and protection, but the new legislation, set to become law by December 1, will give them a voice. </p>
<p>The Act is remarkable because it combines traditional owner knowledge with modern river management expertise, and treats the Yarra as one integrated living natural entity to be protected. </p>
<p>The new law recognises the various connections between the river and its traditional owners. In a first for Victorian state laws, it includes Woi-wurrung language (the language of the Wurundjeri) in both the Act’s title and in its preamble. The phrase <em>Wilip-gin Birrarung murron</em> means “keep the Yarra alive”. Six Wurundjeri elders gave speeches in Parliament in both English and Woi-wurrung to explain the significance of the river and this Act to their people. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z4j00HWL3Ws?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Act also gives an independent voice to the river by way of the Birrarung Council, a statutory advisory body which must have at least two traditional owner representatives on it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">Three rivers are now legally people – but that's just the start of looking after them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Giving legal powers to rivers has become fashionable recently. Aotearoa, New Zealand passed legislation in March to give <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/whanganui-river-settlement-passes-third-reading">legal personhood to the Whanganui River</a>, the voice of that river being an independent guardian containing Māori representation. </p>
<p>Within a week of that decision, the Uttarakhand High Court in India ruled that the <a href="http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/uhc/RS/orders/22-03-%202017/RS20032017WPPIL1262014.pdf">Ganga and Yamuna Rivers are living entities with legal status</a>, and ordered government officers to assume legal guardianship of the two rivers (although that decision has since been <a href="http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/supremecourt/2017/18199/18199_2017_Order_07-Jul-2017.pdf">stayed by the Indian Supreme Court</a>).</p>
<p>All of these developments recognise that rivers are indivisible living entities that need protection. But the Victorian legislation differs in that it doesn’t give the Yarra River legal personhood or assign it a legal guardian. The Birrarung Council, although the “independent voice” of the Yarra, will have only advisory status.</p>
<h2>Speaking for the silent</h2>
<p>The practice of giving legal voice to entities that cannot speak for themselves is not a new one. Children have legal guardians, as do adults who are not in a position to make decisions for themselves. We also give legal status to many non-human entities, such as corporations.</p>
<p>The idea of doing the same for rivers and other natural objects was <a href="http://www.environmentandsociety.org/mml/stone-christopher-d-should-trees-have-standing-law-morality-and-environment">first suggested back in 1972</a>. In general terms, giving something legal personhood means it can sue or be sued. So a river’s legal guardian can go to court and sue anyone who pollutes or otherwise damages the river. (Theoretically, a river could also be sued, although this has yet to be tested.)</p>
<p>So how will the Yarra River be protected, if it doesn’t have legal personhood or a guardian? </p>
<p>Like the Whanganui River Settlement legislation, the Yarra River Protection Act provides for the development of a strategic plan for the river’s management and protection. This includes a long term community vision, developed through a process of active community participation, that will identify areas for protection. The strategic plan will also be informed by environmental, social, cultural, recreational and management principles.</p>
<p>These Yarra protection principles further enhance the recognition of traditional owner connection to the Yarra River. They highlight Aboriginal cultural values, heritage and knowledge, and the importance of involving traditional owners in policy planning and decision-making.</p>
<p>And the Birrarung Council will have an important role to play. It will provide advice and can advocate for the Yarra River, even if it can’t actually make decisions about its protection, or take people who damage the Yarra River to court. </p>
<p>Importantly, the Council does not have any government representatives sitting on it. Its members are selected by the environment minister for four-year terms and once appointed they can’t be removed unless they’re found to be unfit to hold office (for example, for misconduct or neglect of duty). This makes sure that the Council’s advice to the minister is truly independent.</p>
<p>So, although the new law will not give the Yarra River full legal personhood, it does enshrine a voice for traditional owners in the river’s management and protection – a voice that has been unheard for too long.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie O'Bryan is a member of the National Environmental Law Association, Environmental Justice Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation. </span></em></p>New legislation has recognised the Yarra River as a single, living entity. But what does that mean in practice?Katie O'Bryan, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, and Associate, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/818482017-08-08T19:43:36Z2017-08-08T19:43:36ZForest conservation approaches must recognise the rights of local people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181209/original/file-20170807-16741-xth1q4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protected areas are being established without acknowledging the customary rights of local communities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarobidy Rakotonarivo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until the 1980s, biodiversity conservation in the tropics focused on the <a href="http://www.the-eis.com/data/literature/Protected%20areas_vet%20fences.pdf">“fines and fences”</a> approach: creating protected areas from which local people were forcibly excluded. More recently, conservationists have embraced the notion of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/oct/20/conservation-brazil">win-win</a>”: a dream world where people and nature thrive side by side. </p>
<p>But over and over, we have seen these illusions shattered and the need to navigate <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-tropical-forests-could-be-next-in-line-as-global-food-demand-grows-80401?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1500040839">complicated trade-offs</a> appears unavoidable. </p>
<p>To this day, protected areas <a href="http://territorialmasquerades.net/coercing-conservation/">are being</a> established coercively. They exclude local communities without acknowledging their customary rights. Sadly, most conservation approaches are characterised by a model of “let’s conserve first, and then compensate later if we can find the funding”. </p>
<p>A new conservation model, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (<a href="https://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/what-redd">REDD+</a>) is an example of this. Finalised at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forests-gain-long-awaited-recognition-in-paris-climate-summit-52238">Paris climate conference</a> in 2015, it seemed to offer something for everyone: supplying global ecosystem services – such as capturing and storing carbon dioxide and biodiversity conservation – while improving the lives of local communities. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, REDD+ is often built on protected area regimes that exclude local people. For example in Kenya, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/03/world-bank-un-redd-genocide-land-carbon-grab-sengwer-kenya">REDD+ led to</a> the forceful eviction of forest dependent people and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837715002926">exacerbated</a> inequality in access to land. The approach is underpinned by laws (often a legacy of the colonial era) that fail to recognise local people’s traditional claims to the forest. In doing so, REDD+ <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35409903">fails</a> to provide compensation to the people it most affects and risks perpetuating the illusion of win-win solutions in conservation. </p>
<p>REDD+ is just one way in which forest conservation can disadvantage local people. In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.02.009">our research</a> we set out to estimate the costs that local people will incur as a result of a REDD+ pilot project in Eastern Madagascar: the <a href="http://peoplefoodandnature.org/landscape/ankeniheny-zahamena-corridor/">Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena</a>. </p>
<p>Our aim was to see whether we could robustly estimate these costs in advance, so that adequate compensation could be provided using the funds generated by REDD+. Our research found that costs were very significant, but also hard to estimate in advance. Instead, we suggest that a more appropriate approach might be to recognise local people’s customary tenure. </p>
<h2>Social costs of protected areas</h2>
<p>Madagascar, considered one of the top global <a href="http://esanalysis.colmex.mx/Sorted%20Papers/2010/2010%20GBR%20USA%20-CS%20MDG,%20Biodiv%20Phys.pdf">biodiversity hotspots</a>, recently <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/wcs-npa010606.php">tripled</a> the island’s protected area network from 1.7 million hectares to 6 million hectares. This covers 10% of the country’s total land area. </p>
<p>Although the state has claimed ownership of these lands since colonial times, they are often the customary lands of local communities whose livelihoods are deeply entwined with forest use. The clearance of forests for cultivation has traditionally provided access to fertile soils for millions of small farmers in the tropics. Conservation restrictions obviously affect them negatively. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181184/original/file-20170807-16732-1qscgv3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swidden agriculture in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarobidy Rakotonarivo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conservationists need to assess the costs of conservation before they start. This could help to design adequate compensation schemes and alternative policy options. </p>
<p>We <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17300475">set out</a> to estimate the local welfare costs of conservation in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar using innovative multi-disciplinary methods which included qualitative as well as quantitative data. We asked local people to trade off access to forests for swidden agriculture (land cleared for cultivation by slashing and burning vegetation) with compensation schemes such as cash payments or support for improved rice farming.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181187/original/file-20170807-16790-1ulam3m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Choice experiment surveys with local households in Madagascar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarobidy Rakotonarivo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We selected households that differed in their past experience of forest protection from two sites in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>We found that households have different views about the social costs of conservation. </p>
<p>When households had more experience of conservation restrictions, neither large cash payments nor support for improved rice farming were seen as enough compensation. </p>
<p>Less experienced households, on the other hand, had strong aspirations to secure forest tenure. Competition for new forest lands is becoming increasingly fierce and government protection, despite undermining traditional tenure systems, is weakly enforced. They therefore believed that legal forest tenure is better since it would enable them to establish claims over forest lands. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, knowing what would constitute “fair” compensation is extremely complex. </p>
<p>Firstly, local people have very different appraisals of the social costs of conservation. That makes it difficult to estimate accurately the potential negative costs of an intervention. </p>
<p>It’s also hard to evaluate how cash or agricultural projects will stimulate development. This makes it challenging to estimate how much, or what type of compensation should be given. </p>
<p>These challenges are compounded by the high transaction costs of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.01.004">identifying those eligible</a> as well as the lack of political power of communities to demand compensations.</p>
<h2>The solution</h2>
<p>Conservation approaches, particularly fair compensation for restrictions that are imposed coercively, need a major rethink. </p>
<p>One solution could be to formally recognise local people’s claims to the forest and then negotiate renewable conservation agreements with them. This is an approach already used successfully in many Western countries. In the US for example, conservation organisations negotiate <a href="https://www.nature.org/about-us/private-lands-conservation/conservation-easements/all-about-conservation-easements.xml">“easements”</a> with landowners, to protect wildlife. Agreements like this ensure that local people’s participation is genuinely voluntary and that compensation payments are sufficient. </p>
<p>Our research shows that there’s a strong demand from local people for securing local forest tenure. There’s also <a href="https://blog.nature.org/science/2017/07/20/how-could-land-tenure-security-affect-conservation/">evidence</a> that doing so may better protect forest resources because without customary tenure local people are more likely to clear forests faster than they would do if they were given secure rights. </p>
<p>We therefore argue that securing local tenure may be an essential part of social safeguards for conservation models like REDD+. It could also have the added benefit of helping to reduce poverty.</p>
<p>The social costs of forest conservation have been generally under-appreciated and advocacy for nature conservation reveals a lack of awareness of the high price that local people have to pay. As local forest dwellers have the greatest impact on resources and also the most to lose from non-sustainable uses of these resources, a radical change in current practices is needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarobidy Rakotonarivo received funding from the European Commission through the forest-for-nature-and-society (fonaso.eu) joint doctoral programme, and the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme (p4ges project: NE/K010220/1) funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal Hockley received funding for this work from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation program (ESPA), funded by the UK Department for International Development, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Conservationists need to assess costs which allow for the adequate compensation of communities on protected lands, whose livelihoods are deeply entwined with forest use.Sarobidy Rakotonarivo, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of StirlingNeal Hockley, Research Lecturer in Economics & Policy, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732032017-03-09T19:22:41Z2017-03-09T19:22:41ZWhy ‘green-black’ alliances are less simple than they seem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160118/original/image-20170309-21039-sbcivl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Certain traditional owners and conservation groups allied to stand against a planned gas hub in Western Australia's Kimberley region.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Tim Gentles</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia and across the world, Indigenous people are resisting developments that threaten their lands. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/07/indigenous-owners-threaten-legal-action-unless-adani-abandons-land-access-deal">Wangan and Jagalingou</a> people stand in opposition to the planned Carmichael coalmine in Queensland, while the Sioux people are holding firm in their struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline at <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1010-standing-rock-nodapl-and-mni-wiconi">Standing Rock</a>. </p>
<p>As these contests intensify, they reveal that Indigenous peoples often have limited say over what happens on their country. When pitted against powerful state and corporate actors, Indigenous people may seek assistance from others, such as environmentalists, to protect their interests and further their aspirations. </p>
<p>In Australia, these arrangements have sometimes been called “green-black alliances”. However, as we argue in our new book <a href="http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/unstable-relations-indigenous-people-and-environmentalism-in-contemporary-australia">Unstable Relations</a>, it is misleading to contend that Indigenous people and environmentalists necessarily share (or don’t share) the same ends and motives. </p>
<p>They are neither natural allies nor enemies. Instead, we suggest, close attention to the past and present of “green-black” meetings in Australia reveals that their relationships are surprisingly unstable, and are shaped by shifting legal and social contexts. </p>
<p>To understand how and why these collaborations occur, and how and why they can fall apart, we need a better comprehension of the particular processes and people involved, rather than treating them all as uniform.</p>
<h2>Understanding land rights today</h2>
<p>Since 1966, governments in Australia have progressively recognised different forms of Indigenous land rights. Perhaps the most well known is “native title”, which was first recognised in the High Court’s 1992 <a href="https://theconversation.com/advocates-or-activists-what-can-lawyers-learn-from-mabo-7443">Mabo decision</a>. </p>
<p>Native title applies only to Crown lands and pastoral leases, only authorises limited land use rights, and is proven through condescending tests of cultural “continuity”. Because of the history of colonial dispossession, some groups fail to meet these tests; others refuse to do so. These problems notwithstanding, multiple forms of Indigenous land rights together cover more than a third of the continent, much of it in remote Australia.</p>
<p>As we have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/05/adani-mine-leases-and-national-parks-in-doubt-after-native-title-court-decision">recently seen</a>, mining companies and others often greet changes to land rights regimes with dire warnings about economic impacts. The “Mabo madness” of the 1990s proved overblown. By and large, Australia’s various land rights regimes have been highly accommodating to miners and mineral extraction. </p>
<p>In violation of United Nations principles, Australia’s native title laws do not recognise Indigenous peoples’ rights to consent over what happens on their country. Rather, they simply allow a right to be consulted for six months. This gives rise to contractual agreements, such as Indigenous Land Use Agreements, which effectively grant mining companies and others a “social licence to operate” in exchange for a mixture of cash and in-kind benefits.</p>
<p>Indigenous academic <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/series/2012-boyer-lectures/4305696">Marcia Langton</a> and others have argued that this era of “agreement-making” has the potential to lift Indigenous people in remote areas out of poverty. According to this argument, environmental groups that raise concerns about industrial activity do so at Indigenous peoples’ expense. </p>
<p>A simplified version of this story is often found in the mainstream media, casting environmentalists as out-of-touch urbanites and portraying Indigenous groups who work with them as dupes or somehow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/02/the-biggest-threat-to-culture-is-not-an-lng-plant-the-real-battle-for-james-price-point">illegitimate</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many Australians seem to accept that extractive developments are both inevitable and beneficial, despite complex <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/centre-aboriginal-economic-policy-research-caepr/my-country-mine-country">evidence</a> to the contrary. </p>
<p>The alternative view is the one depicted in this painting by Garawa artist <a href="http://www.waralungku.com/artists/jacky-green">Jacky Green</a>, in which a road train covered with dollar signs represents “the wealth being taken away from us, from our country”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Money moving over Aboriginal heads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacky Green, 2012/Private Collection</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unstable relations</h2>
<p>The anthropological and historical research presented in our book highlights that, far from being manipulated, Indigenous people who are opposed to a particular development often seek to enter into strategic partnerships with environmentalists. Crucially, these are not inevitable alliances but negotiated collaborations, which can run into problems if circumstances change.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wild-rivers-act-controversy-5663">controversy</a> that erupted in recent years over Queensland’s Wild Rivers Act was shaped by collaborative relationships established between the Australian Conservation Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and Cape York Land Council and its former chairman Noel Pearson decades earlier. Whereas these groups had formalised an alliance in the mid-1990s, which successfully lobbied for land rights and the return of country to traditional owners in Cape York, they <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049182.2011.546319">split</a> in the late 2000s over how to regulate planning on that country. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, while a public controversy raged, together these groups continued to privately negotiate further outcomes over jointly managed national parks. </p>
<p>Another quite different example is the campaign against a major liquid-gas processing plant and port at Walmadany (<a href="https://theconversation.com/james-price-point-environmental-significance-ignored-in-failed-impact-assessment-8817">James Price Point</a>) in Western Australia. The ethnographer <a href="http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/the-mothers-day-protest-and-other-fictocritical-essays">Stephen Muecke</a> has characterised the relationship between those Goolarabooloo people who sought to halt the project and their green supporters as the most successful such collaboration in Australia’s history. </p>
<p>This was based on long-term personal relationships between some of those involved and, crucially, the media and <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-price-point-environmental-significance-ignored-in-failed-impact-assessment-8817">scientific resources</a> that environmentalists were able to bring to the campaign. “Citizen scientists” took their cue from Goolarabooloo people’s firsthand knowledge of local environs, conducting highly successful surveys of turtle nests and bilbies.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/unstable-relations-indigenous-people-and-environmentalism-in-contemporary-australia">our book</a>, we and other contributors point to many other productive but nonetheless unstable relationships in South Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and elsewhere.</p>
<h2>The ‘green-black’ future</h2>
<p>Environmentalists often seem oblivious to the contractual landscape in which they are acting. They mistake their relationships with particular Indigenous groups as a natural alliance, based on received ideas of Indigenous connection to country.</p>
<p>But as Yorta Yorta activist Monica Morgan has pointed out, Indigenous people have a holistic relationship with their country, which doesn’t always fit with the specific goals of environmentalists. When green groups assume that Indigenous peoples’ “traditional culture” is necessarily conservationist, this can lead them to denigrate Indigenous people who pursue economic opportunities. </p>
<p>Relationships between Indigenous people and environmental interests continue to change. Both are now landholders of significant conservation areas in remote Australia, while Indigenous people are increasingly employed as rangers through state-funded conservation projects. </p>
<p>Again, specific case studies show how these arrangements are far from simple. At the former pastoral property of <a href="http://www.australianwildlife.org/sanctuaries/pungalina-seven-emu-sanctuary.aspx">Pungalina</a> in Queensland’s Gulf Country, Garawa people return to “Emu Dreaming” places now managed by non-Indigenous conservationists. There they negotiate an ambiguous field of responses to their presence, ranging from interest and respect to anxiety. </p>
<p>In Arnhem Land, Kuninjku people express ambivalence about the problem of the environmentally destructive <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/managing-wild-buffalo-in-arnhem-land/7284802">buffalo</a> in an Indigenous Protected Area. The buffalo are simultaneously recognised as companions, an environmental problem, and a crucial source of meat in hungry times.</p>
<p>As long as Indigenous people have limited capacity to decide what happens on their country, and as long as environmentalists continue to oppose destructive developments, their interests will sometimes intersect. However, as these situations arise and alliances form, we should be careful to avoid essentialising or conflating those involved. “Green-black” alliances will certainly be productive at times, but they will always be unstable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Neale receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve Vincent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relations between Indigenous peoples and environmentalists can be productive for both parties, but they will always be unstable.Timothy Neale, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityEve Vincent, Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/609292016-08-01T20:12:02Z2016-08-01T20:12:02ZWater in northern Australia: a history of Aboriginal exclusion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132134/original/image-20160727-5666-zqmokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Ord River was targeted for agricultural expansion in the 20th century.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APump_station.jpg">isthatdaves/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May, the Northern Territory government <a href="http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-11/major-water-licence-granted-jindare-station-northern-territory/7405020">granted a major water licence</a> for a cattle station near Pine Creek, west of Kakadu National Park, to use almost 14 billion litres of water a year to irrigate crops. </p>
<p>In response, the <a href="http://www.nlc.org.au/">Northern Land Council</a>, which represents Aboriginal landholders, called for a moratorium on all further water allocations in the Territory, claiming the government had not fully consulted the community about the licence.</p>
<p>As we <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2784598">document in a new paper</a>, this kind of debate has been happening ever since the colonisation of northern Australia, often on the premise that the north’s water resources are “wasted” without more economic development and subsequent increases in settler populations. </p>
<p>Since the early 20th century, huge amounts of public money have been invested in large-scale water infrastructure projects in northern Australia, such as the <a href="https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/assessment-agricultural-expansion/ord-river-development-and-irrigated-agriculture">Ord River Scheme</a>.</p>
<p>But the viability of this program has been widely critiqued on economic grounds since the mid-1950s. Prominent agricultural economist <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/614255?c=people">Bruce Davidson</a> coined the phrase “the Northern Myth” to describe the widely held, but misplaced, belief in the north’s capacity to accommodate vastly expanded agriculture and irrigation because of its abundant water and land.</p>
<p>These developments also largely occurred without consulting Aboriginal people. Water was allocated to other users without taking account of traditional owners’ longstanding cultural and economic practices with regard to land and water, stretching back thousands of years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132124/original/image-20160727-5673-11ijlhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous land holdings in northern Australia. Red: Indigenous estates; beige: determined areas; blue: areas subject to claim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Native Title Tribunal</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A colonial history of exclusion</h2>
<p>After Britain acquired sovereignty of Australia, water use was regulated according to English <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riparian_water_rights">riparian rights</a>. Under this law, legal rights to use water, for example for farming, were given to whoever owned the land where rivers flowed. The link between water use and landholding remained in place, in one form or another, until the late 20th century. </p>
<p>This meant that Indigenous Australians, whose traditional ownership of land (native title) was only <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/23.html">recognised by the Australian High Court in 1992</a>, were largely denied legal rights to water.</p>
<p>Around the same time that native title was recognised, reforms (known as the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/water/australian-government-water-leadership/nwi">National Water Initiative</a>) were being pursued to increase the environmental sustainability of the Murray Darling Basin. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, these reforms largely failed to make substantive change in Indigenous water rights or to engage Indigenous people effectively. Today, Indigenous Australians have land rights and/or native title rights and interests over some <a href="http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862879980">30% of the Australian continent</a>, but own only <a href="https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?list=BRO&pid=csiro:EP117999&sb=RECENT&n=15&rpp=25&page=65&tr=189884&dr=all">0.01% of water entitlements</a>.</p>
<h2>Problems continuing</h2>
<p>In June last year the Commonwealth government released the latest version of its plans, the <a href="http://industry.gov.au/ONA/WhitePaper/index.html">White Paper on Developing Northern Australia</a>, which calls for yet more significant expansion of irrigation. <a href="https://theconversation.com/damming-northern-australia-we-need-to-learn-hard-lessons-from-the-south-53885">Strong concerns</a> have been expressed about the plan’s failure to incorporate environmental water reserves.</p>
<p>Aboriginal rights and interests still do not seem to be adequately catered for. In a <a href="http://www.nlc.org.au/media-releases/article/keynote-speech-at-garma-festival">speech at the Garma Festival</a>, Northern Land Council chief executive Joe Morrison claimed Aboriginal people had again been largely absent from the process, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal people have an essential stake in the future of northern Australia … Aboriginal people must be front and centre in planning processes for the north. This is a fundamental gap in the national discourse about northern development … I’m not one to despair, but I do wonder when the day will come that we have a seat at the planning table.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal people are a significant demographic group in northern Australia, with extensive landholdings. In the Northern Territory, for example, Aboriginal people represent <a href="http://www.nlc.org.au">more than 25% of the population and own more than 50% of the land</a>. Any major reform proposal that does not adequately include Aboriginal people risks its own legitimacy.</p>
<p>To give Aboriginal people fair representation in northern water development, they must be accorded a fair share of the water. At the turn of the century, the Northern Territory government developed <a href="http://www.nwc.gov.au/publications/topic/water-planning/indigenous-involvement-in-water-planning/northern-territory">promising proposals</a> to include “strategic indigenous reserves” in northern water resource plans. However, the policy was discontinued after a change of government in 2013. </p>
<p>Experience recovering environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin has taught us that it is much easier to set aside a share of water while resources are still plentiful than embark on a process of buyback.</p>
<p>By and large, Aboriginal people recognise the case for economic development, not least because of the employment opportunities it creates for their own communities. But they also know the importance of protecting country, particularly sacred sites. </p>
<p>This is not to say that Indigenous water rights must be purely for cultural purposes. On the contrary, Indigenous people deserve commercial water rights too, especially given that they have been sidelined from agricultural expansion for so long. </p>
<p>Righting that historical wrong will mean giving Aboriginal people the same water rights that have been given to non-Indigenous users ever since colonisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Macpherson has received funding from the University of Melbourne (including the Human Rights Scholarship) and International Bar Association Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law. All views expressed in this article, alongside those of her coauthors, are her own.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Godden was the Australian Law Reform Commissioner in charge of the Inquiry into the Native Title Act 1993 between 2013 and 2015. She was also recently a Chief Investigator on the Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) Project, which was partnered by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the Australian National University, Griffith University and the University of Melbourne. It received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Rio Tinto, Santos and Woodside.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lily O'Neill was previously a PhD student with the Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) Project. The ATNS Project is a project partnered by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the Australian National University, Griffith University and the University of Melbourne. It receives funding from the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Rio Tinto, Santos and Woodside.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin O'Donnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ever since British settlement, water rights in Australia’s north have favoured landowners over traditional owners, effectively locking Aboriginal people out of agricultural development.Elizabeth Macpherson, PhD candidate, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneErin O'Donnell, Senior Fellow, Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law, The University of MelbourneLee Godden, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLily O'Neill, Fellow and PhD candidate with the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.