TRADITIONAL OWNERS AND SCIENTISTS COLLABORATE TO CARE FOR COUNTRY

Trevor Parker, Senior Custodian of Peedamulla discusses groundwater resources on Peedamulla, with Steven Sonneman-Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation, and a CSIRO officer. Credit: Taryn Kong © CSIRO

Australia’s leading scientific organisation, the CSIRO, has collaborated with the National Native Title Council and different Aboriginal corporations to develop Indigenous land sustainably.

One part of the project took place in the Pilbara, where the CSIRO worked with Jundaru Aboriginal Corporation and Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation to protect waterways and heal country at Peedamulla Station.

Marcus Barber, CSIRO scientist, said the collaboration was about finding ways to build sustainable economic opportunities for traditional owners.

“We helped [Jundaru Aboriginal Corporation and Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation] think about how to reorganise and reuse the station in ways that enabled them to reduce the load on vulnerable areas in the Peedamulla Swamp, and also improve the herd,” he said.

Mr Barber said Traditional Owners taught the CSIRO how to think more long-term.

“We’ve learnt from Indigenous people in this project how to work with traditional owner corporations, custodian corporations, who are looking to the future, and who in a sense never want to leave,” he said.

“There’s a very different way of thinking when the assets you hold are assets you intend to keep forever, for future generations. Ordinary commercial companies don’t think like that. They might think ‘long term’, for 10 years or 20 years [ahead], and be quite proud of that. It’s a very, very different mindset for traditional owners.”

Other parts of the project focussed on tourism opportunities in North Queensland.

As a result of the project, the CSIRO produced a ‘how-to guide’ for Indigenous groups seeking investment in Indigenous on-country development.