Djaara cultural authority drives inclusion of their knowledge and culture in a Joint Management Plan for parks

Abstract

Jackson and Nathan Wong are with DDW Enterprises (trading as Djandak); and, Nat Raisbeck-Brown is with CSIRO, Perth. This paper is part of the special issue 'Indigenous and cross-cultural ecology -perspectives from Australia' published in Ecological Management & Restoration.

Synthesis of Australian cross‐cultural ecology featuring a decade of annual Indigenous ecological knowledge symposia at the Ecological Society of Australia conferences

“…As stated by Dr Leah Talbot (2017 ESA Indigenous Keynote Speaker) and Teagan Goolmeer (Indigenous Reference Group, Threatened Species Hub), active involvement of Indigenous people is essential in ecology and conservation decisionmaking so that Indigenous knowledge is controlled, shared and maintained by Indigenous people (Talbot 2017;Goolmeer et al 2022). In this special issue, Carter et al (2022) detail how cultural authority can be used to drive inclusion of knowledge and culture in jointly managed parks. They outlined how the processes of Prior Informed Consent, participatory planning and power-shifting can be deployed to develop innovative, equitable, culturally appropriate and culturally informed conservation plans.…”

“…They outlined how the processes of Prior Informed Consent, participatory planning and power-shifting can be deployed to develop innovative, equitable, culturally appropriate and culturally informed conservation plans. Furthermore, active involvement of Indigenous people in ecological research and conservation on-Country serves to maintain cultural knowledge and practice, which are significantly threatened, and support intergenerational knowledge sharing (Bangalang et al 2022;Carter et al 2022;Daniels et al 2022;Robin et al 2022). Active involvement of multi-generational Aboriginal groups in ecology and conservation has been shown to strengthen Aboriginal culture, identity, pride and activity, and hence lead to wellbeing and health benefits (Garnett et al 2009;Campbell et al 2011).…”

How Dreaming and Indigenous ancestral stories are central to nature conservation: Perspectives from Walalkara Indigenous Protected Area, Australia

“…T he intersection of Indigenous knowledge and nature conservation is now regarded as essential to meeting the global goals for biodiversity conservation, improved human well-being and maintenance of cultural diversity (Ens et al 2015;Garnett, Burgess, et al 2018;Reyes-Garc ıa & Benyei 2019). Collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners is increasing in conservation and land management (see articles in this species issue) through policy (Forest People's Programme 2020; Goolmeer et al 2022), planning (Adams et al 2018;Buscher et al 2021;Carter et al 2022), ecological research (Russell et al Ens 2021;Skroblin et al 2022;Wysong et al 2022) and on-ground land and sea management (Schwartzman and Zimmerman 2005;Long et al 2020;Lindsay et al 2022). For example, globally, Indigenous-managed lands are protecting similar levels of vertebrate biodiversity to non-Indigenous protected areas (IPAs) such as National Parks (Schuster et al 2019), and Indigenous land managers are maintaining fire regimes that benefit species conservation and culture (Bliege Bird et al 2018).…”