The Barron River which flows through a little town called Kuranda, located in the Cairns hinterland in far north Queensland, was where i spent my formative years. Growing up fishing, swimming camping, on that river gave me a healthy respect for country and the amazing adventures to be had and incredible things to be found. Importantly it also spiked a curiosity for knowledge. Knowledge about my country, the special places, the ecosystems, the flora and fauna and how my people used that country.
This has not changed i still hold these aspiration and still want to be employed in someway that allows me to play a role in looking after country. Whether playing a role in planning or managing natural resource or recoding cultural heritage or the variety of other roles in NRM or natural resource management.
On my father side I'm a descendant of the Djabugay people, I have had the privilege of learning many things about my peoples culture and connection to land. And it is this a value or connection that i know many Aboriginal people all around Australia speak of. They hold that value they same as i do. The connection to country, the aspirations to look after country, the drive to play some role in looking after their country and culture.
Over my twenty something.. years involved in land, natural and cultural resource management i have seen a evolution of what looking after country is about. Many people involved with Aboriginal communities in "looking after country" activities would know that those aspirations i spoke of are near the top of the priority list. However its the evolution i have witness is the involvement of Aboriginal people in a wide range of NRM activities, that i like to cover within this blog.
Particularly i mean that in the early days of my involvement i saw that the priority amongst Aboriginal people was about looking after cultural heritage sites and places of significances. While these are important i think the focus has now shifted to include things such as flora and fauna and special ecosystems.
Like many things, this change has happened gradually and not over night.
There are different reasons for this evolving. I guess Aboriginal people realising themselves that all parts of country and culture are important. The influence from western science and its focus on particular and specific areas of NRM. And indeed the science community engaging more with Aboriginal people and seeing the benefits of Aboriginal knowledge systems, and more importantly the benefits of working with Aboriginal people who are located on country and want to be involved.
This is good this means that the there is a wider range of NRM focus and implementation and as a result of this knowledge and skills grow. In the past we would have had Aboriginal rangers looking after an artefact scatters, now days we have Aboriginal rangers looking after specific species of fauna or involved in research such as turtle nesting and tagging. Conducting surveys of ecosystems, busing country in management of carbon.
This variety in Aboriginal is good and the way of the future. Looking after country should be about this inclusive and broad range approach to NRM. It also needs to be about develop and recognising the broader skill and experiences that are developing amongst Aboriginal Land managers.
So this as the first of my blogs, was just about covering some areas of interest in the area of Aboriginal land management. I'm a consultant that works with Aboriginal groups in land and cultural heritage management planning. For more info on me please feel free to visit my webpage www.djarnda.com.au . My aim with blogs will be about covering areas of interest and expressing my views around this.
There will be more blogs and opinions offered and more in-depth look at specific issues, trends and developments.
Thanks for taking the time to read and hope my opinions are valuable.
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