Emilie Ens
Macquarie University, Environmental Sciences, Faculty Member
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Indigenous biocultural knowledge offers valuable insights for species conservation; however, like biological diversity, associated cultural knowledge is also often threatened. This paper demonstrates how Indigenous biocultural knowledge... more
Indigenous biocultural knowledge offers valuable insights for species conservation; however, like biological diversity, associated cultural knowledge is also often threatened. This paper demonstrates how Indigenous biocultural knowledge of species can contribute to addressing gaps in species occurrence data and conservation knowledge using a case study from the South East Arnhem Land Indigenous Protected Area (SEAL IPA), northern Australia. Using a series of mapping workshops and interviews this collaborative project recorded Indigenous biocultural knowledge of the distribution, ecology, cultural significance and threats to freshwater turtles (freshwoda teduls in the local Indigenous language, Roper River Kriol). Based on past freshwoda tedul hunting experiences, 74 Indigenous knowledge holders identified 753 past freshwoda tedul occurrences, significantly adding to the 12 occurrences previously listed for the SEAL IPA in Australia's online species database, the Atlas of Living Australia. Importantly, these were the first ‘memory’ records of past species sightings by Indigenous people to be recognized and added to Australia's national species database. In addition, a blog summarizing this research was promoted through the Atlas of Living Australia, raising awareness of the Indigenous biocultural knowledge associated with these species. The Mepimbat tedul proujek revealed the cultural significance of freshwoda teduls and reported declines in abundance since the turn of the century, implicating invasive hard‐hooved ungulates (buffalo, pig) and reduced rainfall. The addition of non‐sacred Indigenous knowledge to free online species databases may offer innovative solutions for storage, interaction and sharing of indigenous knowledge, with opportunities for intergenerational and cross‐cultural learning and broader application in conservation management and decision‐making.
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Indigenous knowledge emphasises the importance of cultural connections between humans and the biophysical world. In the face of threats to the maintenance and transfer of Indigenous knowledge, novel approaches such as seasonal calendars... more
Indigenous knowledge emphasises the importance of cultural connections between humans and the biophysical world. In the face of threats to the maintenance and transfer of Indigenous knowledge, novel approaches such as seasonal calendars are emerging as tools to share knowledge and guide management of natural and cultural resources. The renewal of Indigenous cultural fire management in southeast Australia provided an opportunity to explore whether the co‐production of a fire and seasons calendar, using Western and Indigenous knowledges, can support cultural fire management. We present a case study of cross‐cultural collaboration between scientists and the Banbai Aboriginal rangers at Wattleridge Indigenous Protected Area, New South Wales. We reviewed literature from various disciplines (archaeological, ethnohistorical, Indigenous and ecological) and undertook participatory action research and interviews to collate relevant information. This was synthesised in Winba = Fire, the Banbai Fire and Seasons Calendar, which is used by the Banbai rangers to guide cultural burning, share cross‐cultural knowledge and increase awareness of Indigenous cultural fire management. The process of co‐producing knowledge, revitalising culture, caring for Country, working together and supporting self‐determination is relevant for many Indigenous communities around the world.
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SummaryGlobally, the role of women in conservation is gaining attention with increasing initiatives to support gender equity in environmental management and decision‐making. In Australia, the role of Aboriginal women in natural and... more
SummaryGlobally, the role of women in conservation is gaining attention with increasing initiatives to support gender equity in environmental management and decision‐making. In Australia, the role of Aboriginal women in natural and cultural resource management employed as rangers is also gaining recognition; however, female employment in this field remains underrepresented. This paper reflects on a cross‐cultural partnership aimed at empowering young Aboriginal women in natural and cultural resource management, locally known as caring for Country, in Arnhem Land, a remote Aboriginal owned region of northern Australia. The project was led by local Ngukurr community Ngandi Elder and lead author, Mrs Daniels, and Macquarie University researchers who co‐designed and co‐delivered activities according to five project aims: (i) Community involvement; (ii) Biocultural research / learning on Country; (iii) Leadership and confidence building; (iv) Knowledge maintenance; and (v) Capacity building. Over three years of the project, over 60 youth participated in a range of on‐Country and cultural learning, leadership and capacity building activities including cross‐cultural biodiversity surveys, wetland monitoring, traditional language and knowledge recording and culture camps. Participant feedback and a biocultural learning assessment task noted growth in confidence, biocultural knowledge and desire for continuation of youth empowerment programs in conservation. To facilitate gender equity in Aboriginal natural and cultural resource management, structural and sustained support of women’s empowerment and leadership, driven by local women with support of local communities, is required.
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Research Interests: Botany, Biology, Life Sciences, Ecology, Invasive Species, and 15 moreAllelopathy, Biological invasions, Biological Sciences, Growth, Environmental Sciences, Identification, Inhibition, Exotic Plants, Acacia, Compounds, Invasive Plant, Interference Competition, Bush, Invasive, and Ecological Applications
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Abstract Invasive species can have negative and positive impacts for local communities. Conflict between these different values can complicate and sometimes prevent broad-scale management and decision-making. Multi-functional landscapes... more
Abstract Invasive species can have negative and positive impacts for local communities. Conflict between these different values can complicate and sometimes prevent broad-scale management and decision-making. Multi-functional landscapes and community-based conservation paradigms have emerged as constructive approaches to integrating competing interests and the development of sustainable and locally meaningful management planning. Here, we report on a five year feral ungulate exclusion fence project that was used to focus local people's attention on the eco-cultural and socio-economic impacts of feral ungulate invasion in a remote Aboriginal-owned region of northern Australia. Exclusion of feral buffalo, horses and pigs from three culturally significant freshwater billabongs from 2009 to 2013 resulted in variable increases in smooth ground (from 64–93%), ground cover vegetation (from 18–95%) and water lily cover (bush food) (from 20–60%), dependent on the site. The reduction in feral animal ground surface damage in the fenced areas was fastest at the floodplain billabong, Nalawan, which took only a year to become negligible. At the two channel billabongs, Costello and Namaliwiri, feral animal damage was negligible after 3 years. Senior Aboriginal Traditional Owners of these areas were pleased that these environmental assets were protected, but only agreed on the wholesale culling of pigs. Despite recognition of the negative eco-cultural impacts of feral ungulates as observed through the exclusion fence project, they wanted to maintain buffalo and horse on their Country to financially benefit from potential pet-meat and live export industries. Fencing was requested for culturally meaningful sites including those that were used for fishing and were sacred. Fenced areas were viewed by Traditional Owners as “protected” areas of ecological and cultural resources. These multiple management preferences can be combined to build socio-ecological resilience into regional strategic planning for feral ungulate management that will deliver multiple benefits for local communities.
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Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
Over millennia, Indigenous peoples have dispersed the propagules of non-crop plants through trade, seasonal migration or attending ceremonies; and potentially increased the geographic range or abundance of many food species around the... more
Over millennia, Indigenous peoples have dispersed the propagules of non-crop plants through trade, seasonal migration or attending ceremonies; and potentially increased the geographic range or abundance of many food species around the world. Genomic data can be used to reconstruct these histories. However, it can be difficult to disentangle anthropogenic from non-anthropogenic dispersal in long-lived non-crop species. We developed a genomic workflow that can be used to screen out species that show patterns consistent with faunal dispersal or long-term isolation, and identify species that carry dispersal signals of putative human influence. We used genotyping-by-sequencing (DArTseq) and whole-plastid sequencing (SKIMseq) to identify nuclear and chloroplast Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in east Australian rainforest trees (4 families, 7 genera, 15 species) with large (>30 mm) or small (<30 mm) edible fruit, either with or without a known history of use by Indigenous peoples. W...
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Prehistoric human activities have contributed to the dispersal of many culturally important plants. The study of these traditional interactions can alter the way we perceive the natural distribution and dynamics of species and... more
Prehistoric human activities have contributed to the dispersal of many culturally important plants. The study of these traditional interactions can alter the way we perceive the natural distribution and dynamics of species and communities. Comprehensive research on native crops combining evolutionary and anthropological data is revealing how ancient human populations influenced their distribution. Although traditional diets also included a suite of non-cultivated plants that in some cases necessitated the development of culturally important technical advances such as the treatment of toxic seed, empirical evidence for their deliberate dispersal by prehistoric peoples remains limited. Here we integrate historic and biocultural research involving Aboriginal people, with chloroplast and nuclear genomic data to demonstrate Aboriginal-mediated dispersal of a non-cultivated rainforest tree. We assembled new anthropological evidence of use and deliberate dispersal of Castanospermum austral...
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Salt marsh and mangrove have been recognized as being among the most valuable ecosystem types globally in terms of their supply of ecosystem services and support for human livelihoods. These coastal ecosystems are also susceptible to the... more
Salt marsh and mangrove have been recognized as being among the most valuable ecosystem types globally in terms of their supply of ecosystem services and support for human livelihoods. These coastal ecosystems are also susceptible to the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels, with evidence of global shifts in the distribution of mangroves, including encroachment into salt marshes. The encroachment of woody mangrove shrubs and trees into herbaceous salt marshes may represent a substantial change in ecosystem structure, although resulting impacts on ecosystem functions and service provisions are largely unknown. In this review, we assess changes in ecosystem services associated with mangrove encroachment. While there is quantitative evidence to suggest that mangrove encroachment may enhance carbon storage and the capacity of a wetland to increase surface elevation in response to sea-level rise, for most services there has been no direct assessment of encroachment impact. On ...
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The Australian monsoonal tropics region contains one of the planet’s largest, relatively intact tropical savannas and has been continually occupied by humans for at least 50,000 years. The region, spanning Cape York Peninsula, the Top End... more
The Australian monsoonal tropics region contains one of the planet’s largest, relatively intact tropical savannas and has been continually occupied by humans for at least 50,000 years. The region, spanning Cape York Peninsula, the Top End and the Kimberley of northern Australia has long been known to host high biodiversity, but only now is the true extent of locally unique (endemic) species and genetic diversity within each of these areas becoming apparent. Though some critical regions have been included in the national reserve system, including the iconic Kakadu National Park, the ecological and evolutionary dynamics are such that large interconnected swathes of the region need to be actively managed to sustain this unique diversity in the face of escalating anthropogenic impacts and species decline. The growth in Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous-owned land where Traditional Owners aspire to “care for their Country” offers an opportunity to contribute to the broader conser...
Research Interests: Geography, Plant Biology, Biodiversity, Management and evaluation of habitat for wildlife, Biological Sciences, and 7 moreBiodiversity Conservation, Environmental Sciences, Tropics, Conservation and Biodiversity, Ecological Applications, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT, and Aboriginal Australians
Mitigating the environmental effects of global population growth, climatic change and increasing socio-ecological complexity is a daunting challenge. To tackle this requires synthesis: the integration of disparate information to generate... more
Mitigating the environmental effects of global population growth, climatic change and increasing socio-ecological complexity is a daunting challenge. To tackle this requires synthesis: the integration of disparate information to generate novel insights from heterogeneous, complex situations where there are diverse perspectives. Since 1995, a structured approach to inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary(1) collaboration around big science questions has been supported through synthesis centres around the world. These centres are finding an expanding role due to ever-accumulating data and the need for more and better opportunities to develop transdisciplinary and holistic approaches to solve real-world problems. The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS <http://www.aceas.org.au>) has been the pioneering ecosystem science synthesis centre in the Southern Hemisphere. Such centres provide analysis and synthesis opportunities for time-pressed scientists, polic...
Research Interests: Engineering, Environmental policy, Environmental Studies, Australia, Environmental Management, and 14 moreTraditional Ecological Knowledge, Ecology, Environmental Monitoring, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, Biodiversity and Indigenous People, Ecosystem, Interdisciplinary Communication, Conservation of Natural Resources, Elsevier, Cross Disciplinary, Cooperative Behavior, and Transdisciplinary Synthesis
To inform the management of Australia’s natural and cultural resources, conservation science needs to better engage with the broader public who ultimately have control over what knowledge and priorities are applied in the short-term and... more
To inform the management of Australia’s natural and cultural resources, conservation science needs to better engage with the broader public who ultimately have control over what knowledge and priorities are applied in the short-term and the long -term. This chapter explores some of the key cultural drivers and challenges that influence the way that we, as a nation, engage with the environment and how we reconcile environmental investments against social and economic aspirations. By ‘culture’, we refer to the diverse values and subsets of society that generate different knowledge systems and priorities from which decisions are made. These values are shaped by (and characterise) cultural groupings of people based on their nationality (or nationalities), and socio-economic, educational and employment backgrounds. The challenge for conservation is to set priorities and develop coherent policies that respect the diversity of interests held within our society while also maintaining enviro...
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Research Interests: Geography, Ecosystem Services, Diversity, Invasive Species, Chile, and 15 moreBiological invasions, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Environmental degradation, Acacia, Biological Invasion, Ecosystem service, Ecological Impact, BIODIVERSITY LOSS, Legume, Ecosystem Function, Ecosystem Functions, Ecosystem Resilience, Ecosystem response, and Environmental disturbance
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Research Interests: Botany, Geography, Ecosystems Ecology, Climate Change, Ethnobotany, and 15 moreConservation Biology, Conservation, Biocultural Diversity, Australia, Biology, Indigenous Knowledge, Fire Management, Biocultural Anthropology, Biodiversity, Aboriginal History in Australia, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Biological Conservation, Biocultural conservation, and Indigenous
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Please note: Updates about this project can be found on the FaceBook page of Michelle Beverley McKemey https://www.facebook.com/mmckemey/ A clickable version of this link can be found in the "Other Links" field. Please cite this... more
Please note: Updates about this project can be found on the FaceBook page of Michelle Beverley McKemey https://www.facebook.com/mmckemey/ A clickable version of this link can be found in the "Other Links" field. Please cite this poster as: McKemey, M., Yugul Mangi Rangers, Ngukurr Community and Ens, E. (2019) Yugul Mangi Faiya En Sisen Kelenda (Yugul Mangi Fire and Seasons Calendar). University of New England, Armidale NSW. DOI: 10.25952/5dd1b81581d98 Released under Creative Commons. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Globally, the value of integrating multiple knowledge systems is being recognised in ecosystem assessments, monitoring and management. This paper describes a participatory eco-cultural assessment of freshwater billabongs in the South East... more
Globally, the value of integrating multiple knowledge systems is being recognised in ecosystem assessments, monitoring and management. This paper describes a participatory eco-cultural assessment of freshwater billabongs in the South East Arnhem Land Indigenous Protected Area, northern Australia, that drew on Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) and Western science using social and natural science research methods. IEK holders were concerned about feral ungulates trampling and consuming traditional bush food resources and reducing water quality, affecting eco-cultural values of billabongs. We recorded qualitative IEK and conducted a multivariate snapshot assessment of billabong physiochemical water quality, ground condition, yarlbun (water lily) cover and macroinvertebrate assemblage that showed distinct seasonal variation. Although both knowledge systems revealed indicators of seasonal change over 1 year, IEK also revealed longer-term changes and that degradation of billabongs in ...
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1This chapter presents processes that I have explored and challenges encountered while developing collaborative two-way ecological research projects with four Indigenous ranger groups in Arnhem Land from 2008 to 2012. Prior to this I was... more
1This chapter presents processes that I have explored and challenges encountered while developing collaborative two-way ecological research projects with four Indigenous ranger groups in Arnhem Land from 2008 to 2012. Prior to this I was engaged in largely western forms of ecological research. I offer the following insights and lessons I have learnt to exchange knowledge and information about experiences working in cross-cultural and remote environments, and to enhance Indigenous natural and cultural resource management. Communication about what works, what doesn’t and suggestions for enhanced ways forward are essential to maximise the benefits not only for natural and cultural resource management, but also to improve wellbeing and socio-economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians, and the broader public by strengthening Australia’s socio-economic fabric and human rights record. The objectives of my research were four fold: to conduct collaborative ecological research with Indigeno...
Over the past decade, there has been an increasing recognition of the capacity of exotic plants to transform native ecosystems by altering important ecosystem processes such as fire regimes and nutrient cycling (Corbin and D’Antonio 2004,... more
Over the past decade, there has been an increasing recognition of the capacity of exotic plants to transform native ecosystems by altering important ecosystem processes such as fire regimes and nutrient cycling (Corbin and D’Antonio 2004, Levine et al. 2003). Exotic grasses are a large and important component of Australia’s weed flora. They pose a major threat to natural ecosystems worldwide. However, there have been relatively few detailed assessments on the extent of ecological impacts, particularly at the ecosystem level. In Australia, the perennial C4 grass Andropogon gayanus Kunth. ( gamba grass) is currently invading relatively undisturbed mesic savannas, and displacing native annual and perennial C4 grasses. Over the past decade we have been researching the impact of invasion by gamba grass on biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the northern Australian savannas. The research has assessed impacts on stand structure, community composition, nutrient, carbon and water cycling...
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Indigenous self-determination, land rights and caring for Country programs are enabling Indigenous peoples across the world to re-establish customary roles in biodiversity conservation and cultural fire management. In Australia,... more
Indigenous self-determination, land rights and caring for Country programs are enabling Indigenous peoples across the world to re-establish customary roles in biodiversity conservation and cultural fire management. In Australia, Indigenous-controlled lands form the majority of the protected area estate, harbour almost 60% of listed threatened species and maintain high levels of biodiversity. This study used cross-cultural (Indigenous and Western academic) methods to monitor the impact of Indigenous cultural burning v. wildfire on the threatened plant, Backwater grevillea (Grevillea scortechinii subsp. sarmentosa). Cultural burning resulted in lower mature grevillea mortality and less impact on reproductive output than wildfire. Both fires stimulated a mass germination but the cultural burn preserved a multi-aged population while the wildfire killed 99.6% of mature shrubs. Comparison of fuel load changes resulting from cultural burning, hazard reduction burning and wildfire indicated that fuel loads were reduced by all fire treatments, although the cultural burn was less severe than other fires. Our case study of the Backwater grevillea and its Banbai custodians provides an example where Indigenous rangers have adopted a plant into their cultural management framework. They are conserving this threatened species using culturally driven, holistic management that is locally focused and supported by cross-cultural knowledge.
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Indigenous cultural fire management is being recognised and revived across Australia, primarily in the centre and across the north. To explore the benefits of contemporary cultural fire management in southeast Australia and barriers to... more
Indigenous cultural fire management is being recognised and revived across Australia, primarily in the centre and across the north. To explore the benefits of contemporary cultural fire management in southeast Australia and barriers to its revival, we undertook a systematic analysis of the literature. Seventy documented applications of cultural fire management projects were found with the potential for significant upscaling. Over the last decade, eight policies related to Indigenous fire management have been developed by state and territory governments in southeast Australia, with varying levels of implementation. Seventy-eight benefits and 22 barriers were identified in relation to cultural fire management. In the cases where cultural fire management has been successfully reinstated as an ongoing practice, Indigenous leadership, extraordinary relationships, strong agreements and transformational change were identified as drivers of success. For cultural fire management to grow, mor...
Global investigations have implicated water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) as a potential source of zoonotic Cryptosporidium and Giardia parasites which may pose a threat to human health. In Australia, buffalo are a feral pest that have... more
Global investigations have implicated water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) as a potential source of zoonotic Cryptosporidium and Giardia parasites which may pose a threat to human health. In Australia, buffalo are a feral pest that have colonised the floodplains, wetlands and woodlands of Indigenous owned and managed Arnhem Land, in tropical monsoonal Northern Australia. Indigenous people from the remote community Ngukurr have raised concerns about the potential threat to their health from shared use of surface waters inhabited by buffalo, in the South East Arnhem Land Indigenous Protected Area (SEAL IPA), Northern Australia. Surface waters are valued by local Indigenous people for spiritual and customary reasons, bush foods, medicines and drinking water. Here, we used molecular methods to characterise Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis assemblages from feral water buffalo living in the SEAL IPA to determine potential zoonotic risks to health of Indigenous people through co-use of surface water billabongs. Buffalo faecal DNA was screened for Cryptosporidium and Giardia using the 18S rRNA gene. Giardia were also screened using Glutamate hydrogenase (gdh) and βeta-giardin (β-giardin) genes. DNA sequencing identified C. ryanae in 9.9% (31/313) and G. duodenalis assemblage E 1.9% (6/313) in buffalo. Cryptosporidium ryanae is not considered zoonotic and G. duodenalis assemblage E is a livestock assemblage that has been reported in humans. Carriage of G. duodenalis assemblage E in buffalo may present a disease risk for Indigenous people utilising billabongs, according to customary practice.
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Globally, many Indigenous people rely on surface waters for drinking due to limited access to safe or palatable water, cultural and spiritual reasons and belief in its healing properties. In northern Australia, Indigenous people from the... more
Globally, many Indigenous people rely on surface waters for drinking due to limited access to safe or palatable water, cultural and spiritual reasons and belief in its healing properties. In northern Australia, Indigenous people from the remote community Ngukurr have raised concerns about drinking water from freshwater billabongs due to potential microbial contamination from feral ungulates (buffalo, pig, horse and cattle). In response to these concerns, a cross-cultural assessment of water quality and drinking water safety was undertaken. Indigenous biocultural indicators of water quality and perceptions of drinking water safety at billabongs were documented. In addition, Western scientific methods were used to assess billabong waters surrounding the Ngukurr community for the waterborne pathogens Cryptosporidium and Giardia. The results revealed that local Indigenous people make decisions about water quality and drinking water safety through visual indicators, seasonal knowledge and intuition. Giardia was only detected in the late dry season and Cryptosporidium was not detected during either the wet or dry season. The commonly held Indigenous perspective aligned with the pathogen results, whereby billabongs were safer to drink from in the early dry season then the late dry season. Boiling water when drinking from billabongs during all seasons is considered best practice to avoid ingestion of infective enteric pathogens.
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Indigenous fire management is experiencing a resurgence worldwide. Northern Australia is the world leader in Indigenous savanna burning, delivering social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. In 2016, a greenhouse gas abatement... more
Indigenous fire management is experiencing a resurgence worldwide. Northern Australia is the world leader in Indigenous savanna burning, delivering social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. In 2016, a greenhouse gas abatement fire program commenced in the savannas of south-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, managed by the Indigenous Yugul Mangi rangers. We undertook participatory action research and semi-structured interviews with rangers and Elders during 2016 and 2019 to investigate Indigenous knowledge and obtain local feedback about fire management. Results indicated that Indigenous rangers effectively use cross-cultural science (including local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge alongside western science) to manage fire. Fire management is a key driver in the production of bush tucker (wild food) resources and impacts other cultural and ecological values. A need for increased education and awareness about Indigenous burning was consistently emphasized...
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Globally, Indigenous cultural burning has been practiced for millennia, although colonization limited Indigenous people’s ability to access and manage their ancestral lands. Recently, recognition of Indigenous fire management has been... more
Globally, Indigenous cultural burning has been practiced for millennia, although colonization limited Indigenous people’s ability to access and manage their ancestral lands. Recently, recognition of Indigenous fire management has been increasing, leading to the re-emergence of cultural burning in Australia, the Americas, parts of Asia and Africa. We describe how the Banbai people of south-eastern Australia have reintroduced cultural burning at Wattleridge Indigenous Protected Area. Our team of Banbai Rangers and non-Indigenous scientists conducted cross-cultural research to investigate the impact of burning on a cultural keystone species, the Short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). Our comparison of the effects of a low-intensity, patchy, cultural fire in the Wattleridge Indigenous Protected Area to a nearby higher intensity fire in Warra National Park through a Before-After-Control-Impact assessment indicated that the higher intensity fire reduced echidna foraging activity, possibly to avoid predation. Most importantly, we describe a cross-cultural research model whereby Indigenous rangers and non-Indigenous scientists work together to inform adaptive natural and cultural resource management. Such trans-disciplinary and collaborative research strengthens informed conservation decision-making and the social-ecological resilience of communities.
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Background Customary medicine of Australia’s Indigenous peoples draws upon knowledge developed through millennia of interaction with Australia’s unique flora and fauna. Many Indigenous Australians are interested in developing modern... more
Background Customary medicine of Australia’s Indigenous peoples draws upon knowledge developed through millennia of interaction with Australia’s unique flora and fauna. Many Indigenous Australians are interested in developing modern medicinal and commercial translations of traditional knowledge; however, barriers of trust and benefit sharing often thwart progress. Methods Using a participatory action research framework, university researchers collaborated with members of two Australian Indigenous communities to investigate selected medicinal plants and locally made bush products. A trusted community liaison facilitated the collaboration that was fostered through bilateral site visits. Material transfer and confidentiality agreements ensured that the plant materials were only used for the agreed purpose. Plain language written reports of the laboratory results were provided to the communities with follow up discussions. Results In case study 1, only some of the traditional uses for t...
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Involvement of Indigenous people and knowledge in conservation science has become a clear directive in international covenants. Currently, approximately one-third of Australia is owned and managed by Indigenous people, including 84% of... more
Involvement of Indigenous people and knowledge in conservation science has become a clear directive in international covenants. Currently, approximately one-third of Australia is owned and managed by Indigenous people, including 84% of the Northern Territory coastline, making Indigenous-led and cross-cultural research highly relevant. Recently, the Yolŋu Senior Knowledge Custodians of the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area in northern Australia expressed concern about the dieback of culturally significant coastal Melaleuca (paperbark) stands. A partnership between Senior Knowledge Custodians and Western scientists was used to develop an ecocultural research framework to investigate the dieback. Semistructured interviews about the likely causes were conducted with Senior Knowledge Custodians of five coastal flood plain sites where dieback occurred. At these sites, comparative ecological assessments of paired dieback and healthy Melaleuca stands were conducted to explore relationship...
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Mangroves are a major ecosystem within Kakadu National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory, providing coastal protection, high biodiversity and an important resource for Aboriginal people. In the late Holocene (from c. 6000 before... more
Mangroves are a major ecosystem within Kakadu National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory, providing coastal protection, high biodiversity and an important resource for Aboriginal people. In the late Holocene (from c. 6000 before present), mangroves occupied much of the estuarine and coastal plains, but their range has subsequently contracted to the main river systems (the West Alligator, South Alligator and East Alligator Rivers, and the Wildman River), tributary creeks and offshore islands (Field and Barrow Islands). On the basis of maps of mangrove extent generated from aerial photography (1950, 1975, 1984 and 1991), compact airborne spectrographic imagery (CASI; 2002), light detection and ranging (LIDAR; 2011) and RapidEye data (2014 onward), changes in net area have been minor but significant redistribution has occurred, with this being attributed to both inland intrusion and seaward colonisation of mangroves. The greatest area changes have been associated with lower-statur...