ABSTRACT. Robust approaches to natural resource management (NRM) in indigenous cross-cultural contexts require coherent understandings of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK) systems. We synthesize a framework to represent the traditionally derived worldview of Arrernte Aboriginal people within which IEK is embedded. This is an ecology-focused worldview with three interrelated domains of knowledge that are intricately linked, comprising many complex dynamic elements that interact with each other. This worldview is from desert Australia but is relevant to those working in complex cross-cultural environments across Australia and internationally. The visual framework presented fills an important conceptual gap in IEK documentation being positioned at a mesoconceptual scale. Comparisons between this knowledge framework and social-ecological systems theory indicate similarities in systems thinking, in explicit links between people and ecology, and in the emphasis on processes and relationships through causal loops and feedbacks. Important differences lie in the inextricable integration of economic and spiritual domains in the Arrernte worldview. In Arrernte eyes, interrelationships between people, resource species, land, and spiritual domains are central to NRM. Scientific approaches commonly overlook or segregate elements of indigenous knowledge.The multiple values indigenous people attribute to species are often ignored or overridden, which contributes to decoupling within their knowledge system. Western scientists and natural resource managers are looking for better understandings of indigenous knowledge systems. The framework offers a tool that can be applied to both cross-cultural and intergenerational learning to improve NRM and people's well-being and sense of self.

We identify four principles that can promote the prospects of health outcomes for desert Aboriginal people from livelihoods engaged with land management. The principles were derived inductively using a grounded theory approach, drawing on primary research that used qualitative and participatory methods, and from relevant literature and theoretical frameworks. International and Australian literature offers evidence that supports desert Aboriginal people’s view that their health depends on their relationship with their land. Engagement with land management can lead desert Aboriginal people to feel that their own actions are consistent with their own sense of the right and proper way for them to behave towards land, family and community. This increased ‘sense of control’ impacts positively on health by moderating the impact of sustained stress from health risk factors in the environment and lifestyle. The four principles focus on underlying characteristics of Aboriginal land management that are important to promoting this increased ‘sense of control’: (1) Aboriginal land management governance recognises and respects Aboriginal custom and tradition, and is adaptive; (2) learning is embraced as a life-long process; (3) relationships are recognised as very important; and (4) partnerships give priority to doing things that all parties agree are important. These principles are presented as hypotheses that warrant further development and testing. While they do not account specifically for the impact of lifestyle and environmental factors on health, we expect that the increased sense of control that desert Aboriginal people are likely to develop when involved in Aboriginal land management that applies these principles will moderate the impact of such factors on their health. The principles offer a starting point for further development of criteria and standards for good practice in Aboriginal land management, potentially including an environmental certification scheme that integrates social and environmental outcomes.

Improvement in Aboriginal people’s livelihoods and economic opportunities has been a major aim of increased research and development on bush foods over the past decade. But worldwide the development of trade in non-timber forest products from natural populations has raised questions about the ecological sustainability of harvest. Trade-offs and tensions between commercialisation and cultural values have also been found. We investigated the sustainability of the small-scale commercial harvest and trade in native plant products sourced from central Australian rangelands (including Solanum centrale J.M. Black, Acacia Mill. spp.). We used semi-structured interviews with traders and Aboriginal harvesters, participant observation of trading and harvesting trips, and analysis of species and trader records. An expert Aboriginal reference group guided the project. We found no evidence of either taxa being vulnerable to over-harvest. S. centrale production is enhanced by harvesting when it co-occurs with patch-burning. Extreme fluctuations in productivity of both taxa, due to inter-annual rainfall variability, have a much greater impact on supply than harvest effects. Landscape-scale degradation (including cattle grazing and wildfire) affected ecological sustainability according to participants. By contrast, we found that sustainability of bush food trade is more strongly impacted by social and economic factors. The relationship-based links between harvesters and traders are critical to monetary trade. Harvesters and traders identified access to productive lands and narrow economic margins between costs and returns as issues for the future sustainability of harvest and trade. Harvesters and the reference group emphasised that sustaining bush harvest relies on future generations having necessary knowledge and skills; these are extremely vulnerable to loss. Aboriginal people derive multiple livelihood benefits from harvest and trade. Aboriginal custodians and harvester groups involved in recent trade are more likely to benefit from research and development investment to inter-generational knowledge and skill transfer than from investments in plant breeding and commercial horticultural development. In an inductive comparison, our study found there to be strong alignment between key findings about the strategies used by harvesters and traders in bush produce and the ‘desert system’..