Learning together: developing collaborative monitoring of intertidal invertebrates in the Karajarri IPA, north‐western Australia

Abstract

Summary The Karajarri Indigenous Protected Area, in the south‐west Kimberley, is home to vast intertidal rock platforms that form a culturally and ecologically important environment for Karajarri Traditional Owners and wider Bidyadanga community. Karajarri Rangers initiated a collaborative partnership with researchers to devise an intertidal invertebrate monitoring protocol to meet the requirements of their Healthy Country Plan and sustainably manage their cultural harvesting. The project aimed to design and trial a monitoring protocol that blended Indigenous ecological knowledge and values with western scientific rigour. To investigate and document the community’s ecological knowledge of marine resources, a series of Ranger interviews, focus groups and collaborative fieldwork was conducted. Data collected from these qualitative methods provided valuable insights into knowledge of the intertidal environment and fauna and the community’s management aspirations and priorities. Informed by these data, a monitoring protocol was cross‐culturally designed to combine Indigenous knowledge and values within a western scientific framework. Two methodologies were piloted, focusing on a small subset of culturally significant target species. Although both were successful, the trial indicated that Rangers preferred abundance‐focused methods for ecological monitoring. Further refinement of the monitoring protocol is required to build western science knowledge of the ecosystem and meet Ranger management goals. However, this study provided the basis of future monitoring strategies for Karajarri Rangers, formed a lasting collaborative partnership and is a useful exploration of Indigenous preferred approaches to western scientific monitoring of intertidal rock platforms.

Contemporary marine science, its utility and influence on regulation and government policy

“…The latter is part of a positive shift towards the more-proactive Indigenous-led planning, research, governance and management (e.g., Mayala Inninalang Aboriginal Corporation, 2019), as opposed to more-reactive Indigenous-engagement initiatives led by government and non-government agencies, mining/exploration companies, researchers amongst others (see also Smyth et al, 2016). Most marine-based programs and grant schemes fall within the latter, with the development of strategic alliances and partnerships between Traditional custodians and marine science and management agencies, with the shared realization that the integration of traditional knowledge and Western science provides a better way forward (e.g., Lincoln and Hedge, 2019;Shamsi et al, 2020;Diggon et al 2022;Murley et al, 2022). Such aims are exemplified in the Australian Marine Parks Indigenous Engagement Program 15 and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Indigenous Partnerships Plan 16 (Evans-Illidge et al, 2020;Bock et al, 2021).…”

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ - towards a greater acknowledgment of submerged prehistoric resources in Australian science-policy as part of a common heritage

“…The latter is part of a positive shift towards the more-proactive Indigenous-led planning, research, governance and management (e.g., Mayala Inninalang Aboriginal Corporation, 2019), as opposed to more-reactive Indigenous-engagement initiatives led by government and non-government agencies, mining/exploration companies, researchers amongst others (see also . Most marine-based programs and grant schemes fall within the latter, with the development of strategic alliances and partnerships between Traditional custodians and marine science and management agencies, with the shared realization that the integration of traditional knowledge and Western science provides a better way forward (e.g., Lincoln and Hedge, 2019;Shamsi et al, 2020;Diggon et al 2022;Murley et al, 2022). Such aims are exemplified in the Australian Marine Parks Indigenous Engagement Program 15 and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Indigenous Partnerships Plan 16 (Evans-Illidge et al, 2020;Bock et al, 2021).…”