Getting our Act together to improve Indigenous leadership and recognition in biodiversity management

Abstract

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

“…O ver 500 diverse Indigenous language groups maintain ancestral connections to tribal lands that collectively span what is now known as Australia (Goolmeer et al 2022). For millennia, thousands of generations of Indigenous family groups have traversed, lived on, observed and manipulated or 'worked' the ecosystems of their tribal estates for food, resources, medicines, access and cultural purposes using a range of intensive and extensive environmental 'management' practices (Fletcher et al 2021).…”

“…Indigenous biocultural knowledge is traditionally passed down through generations via intangible (story, song, dance, ceremony) and tangible (drawings and carvings) forms, following cultural Lore, rights and responsibilities (Goolmeer et al 2022). These modes of knowledge transmission are often referred to as 'art' by Euro-Western communities and hence were classified as creative pursuits, open to interpretation and often not considered as having a factual basis.…”

“…As Moggridge et al (2019) articulated, cross-cultural approaches promote Indigenous inclusion and Indigenous ways of knowing which not only add to deeper ecological understanding but also serve to support reconciliation and healing of Australia's social relations after the centuries of discrimination, genocide and cultural erasure of Aboriginal peoples that ensued after European colonisation. 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.…”

“…Of the relatively few Indigenous researchers who have become adept at cross-cultural science and communication, high demands on their time and energy mean that many Indigenous research leaders are overburdened with requests to sit as Indigenous representatives on Advisory Committees and lead projects. A stronger network of Indigenous researchers needs to be supported by existing or new funding structures (Goolmeer et al 2022).…”

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).…”