A review of Nyoongar responses to severe climate change and the threat of epidemic disease—Lessons from their past

Abstract

Nyoongar people have lived in the South West of Western Australia for at least 50,000 years. During that time, they experienced significant climate change, including wide variations in temperature and rainfall, and hundreds of metres’ difference in sea levels. Nyoongar people have a long memory, and climate change is described in their stories and in the knowledge they hold about how life was lived in earlier times. There are artifacts and places that have been manipulated to be productive despite severe drought. COVID-19 disrupted the writing of this article, and the authors felt it appropriate to include Nyoongar responses to the threat of epidemic disease brought by Europeans early in their settlement of the area. This review collates existing material generated through Koodjal Jinnung (two-way seeing), a research method that incorporates traditional knowledge and contemporary social and natural sciences about Nyoongar history, to create a description of the resiliency of Nyoongar people under threat from climate change. The article identifies key values and resilience factors underpinning the successful implementation of behavioural and technological mechanisms to negotiate severe climate change and the threat of epidemic disease.

Climate change, activism, and supporting the mental health of children and young people: Perspectives from Western Australia

“…Robertson and Barrow explain that the Nyoongar people in South Western WA have developed a ‘value‐based, highly cooperative society’, which enabled them to use available resources to respond to climate change, including a 10 000 year drought. 8 At the same time, climate change poses multiple threats to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (henceforth Aboriginal) people's wellbeing, exacerbating pre‐existing disadvantages in health, education, employment, poverty and incarceration. 1 (We use the term Aboriginal to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia.…”

Overview and Investigation of Australian Aboriginal Lizard Traps

“…Noongar-made features found on granite outcrops include augmented gnamma (rock pools), standing stones, rock art, grinding patches, and stone arrangements that provide shelter for reptiles (Bindon 1997; Guilfoyle et al 2013; Mitchell 2016), some of which are examples of human niche construction (Kendal et al 2011; Lullfitz et al 2017; Smith 2011). Pools provide aquatic habitats (Bayly 1997; Twidale and Bourne 2018) and arranging loose surface rocks can channel dew fall, provide shelter, and increase thermal complexity of outcrops (Croak et al 2010; Robertson and Barrow 2020).…”