Wet Tropics of Queensland

First Peoples’ land overlaps with 130 imperilled bird species – and their knowledge may be vital to saving them

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Our new research explored this opportunity by examining where Australia’s imperilled birds overlap with the Country of First Peoples.

Key Points:

Our new research explored this opportunity by examining where Australia’s imperilled birds overlap with the Country of First Peoples.
The includes but is not confined to Indigenous Protected Areas, native title land and areas controlled by Indigenous land councils.
Our analysis found 64% of these, or about 130 species, occur on lands and waters to which First Peoples’ groups have a legal determination.

‘Threatened species’ is a Western concept

In the decades since Australia’s threatened species legislation was passed in 1992, First Peoples have become key partners in conservation.
For millennia, birds have been integral to the cultural practice and livelihoods of Australia’s First Peoples.
The concept of “threatened species” is founded in Western science and is not necessarily a term First Peoples use.

What we found

Under Australian law, First Peoples lack legal title to much of their ancestral lands.
Regardless, connections to Country – and species that live there – remain.
For example, the entire population of Australia’s rarest bird, the mukarrthippi grasswren, lives on Ngiyampaa Country in central NSW.
And the entire range of three threatened species is on the Country of Tiwi Islander First Peoples.

How First Peoples can become more involved

But it may help First Peoples know which threatened bird species occur on their Country.
For example, First Peoples may seek expansion of Indigenous Protected Areas where the species occur.
The monitoring of imperilled birds is another activity where First Peoples already contribute strongly but could be more involved.

Compensation for centuries of damage

For example, Indigenous Protected Areas make up almost half of Australia’s conservation areas, yet receive just a fraction of funding for the federal conservation estate.
Australia’s First Peoples were begrudgingly granted land rights after two centuries of having their ownership denied.
They also have a right to compensation for the damage done.

Amanda Lilleyman is affiliated with BirdLife Australia. She works for and consults to Aboriginal ranger groups and Charles Darwin University. Jack Pascoe is affiliated with Back to Country and is Co-Chief Councilor of the Biodiversity Council. Stephen Garnett works for Charles Darwin University. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with BirdLife Australia.

First Peoples’ land overlaps with 130 imperilled bird species – and this knowledge may be vital to saving them

Retrieved on:

Monday, February 12, 2024

Our new research explored this opportunity by examining where Australia’s imperilled birds overlap with the Country of First Peoples.

Key Points:

Our new research explored this opportunity by examining where Australia’s imperilled birds overlap with the Country of First Peoples.
The includes but is not confined to Indigenous Protected Areas, native title land and areas controlled by Indigenous land councils.
Our analysis found 64% of these, or about 130 species, occur on lands and waters to which First Peoples’ groups have a legal determination.

‘Threatened species’ is a Western concept

In the decades since Australia’s threatened species legislation was passed in 1992, First Peoples have become key partners in conservation.
For millennia, birds have been integral to the cultural practice and livelihoods of Australia’s First Peoples.
The concept of “threatened species” is founded in Western science and is not necessarily a term First Peoples use.

What we found

Under Australian law, First Peoples lack legal title to much of their ancestral lands.
Regardless, connections to Country – and species that live there – remain.
For example, the entire population of Australia’s rarest bird, the mukarrthippi grasswren, lives on Ngiyampaa Country in central NSW.
And the entire range of three threatened species is on the Country of Tiwi Islander First Peoples.

How First Peoples can become more involved

But it may help First Peoples know which threatened bird species occur on their Country.
For example, First Peoples may seek expansion of Indigenous Protected Areas where the species occur.
The monitoring of imperilled birds is another activity where First Peoples already contribute strongly but could be more involved.

Compensation for centuries of damage

For example, Indigenous Protected Areas make up almost half of Australia’s conservation areas, yet receive just a fraction of funding for the federal conservation estate.
Australia’s First Peoples were begrudgingly granted land rights after two centuries of having their ownership denied.
They also have a right to compensation for the damage done.

'Ecology on steroids': how Australia's First Nations managed Australia's ecosystems

Retrieved on:

Saturday, December 30, 2023

First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people.

Key Points:

First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people.
On October 9 1873, George Augustus Frederick Dalrymple reclined in a boat on the glorious North Johnstone River in the coastal Wet Tropics.
Dappled paths led to managed patches of open forest, groves of fruit trees, bananas and yams.
First Nations groups such as Australia’s rainforest people had skilfully managed entire ecosystems over the long term, in what has been termed “ecology on steroids”.

Decoupling landscape from climate change

The Pleistocene climate was cool and windy, with mega monsoons and long periods of diabolical drought.
Here, in a magnificent cave system in Arnhem Land, people prepared a meal of native fruits and processed pandanus using an adaptable toolkit.
This meal took place 65,000 years ago, when savannah stretched all the way to the island of New Guinea.

The land was not a mindless resource but part of your family – and came with family obligations.
Everyone, whether you were human, an animal, a plant, a river, fire, the sky or wind, was closely watched.

The lagoon filled up, nestled in a landscape of moisture-loving shrubs and brushed by relatively cool fires.
But then, the climate lurched to one of the long periods of horrendous drought instigated by an El Nino weather system.
Through patch burning, they created a rich landscape of diverse habitat that sustained people and created niches for a wide range of species.

Extinction busters

From before the last ice age, the ancestors of today’s Martu people would have witnessed great floods rushing down the Sturt Creek into an extensive lake system, Paruku (Lake Gregory).
These lakes were ten times larger than today’s system, ringed by dunes covered in scrubby vegetation and flammable spinifex.
Without cultural burning, it took mere years for fuel to build up and large wildfires to incinerate the landscape.

Over the two decades of Martu absence, ten species of small mammal became locally extinct, including the rufous hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, bilby, mulgara and brushtail possum.
What’s more, 14 mammals, three birds and two reptiles became threatened.
We will need to relearn these ancient techniques of managing country on a broader scale to cope with the changes to come.

Penny has recently published a book, Cloud Land, with Allen & Unwin based on the Thiaki restoration project.
Barry Hunter is a Djabugay man and chair of Terrain NRM, a natural resources management group.

Join Travel Show Host Alana Nichols for A Look Down Under As She Explores The magnificent Country Of Australia during The second Season Of The Successful Travel Show 'FOLLOW ALANA'

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Born in Taipei to an American mother and a Taiwanese father, Nichols entered the world with an extremely rare form of deafness.

Key Points:

Born in Taipei to an American mother and a Taiwanese father, Nichols entered the world with an extremely rare form of deafness.
While her mother noticed she was unresponsive to sound at eight months old her condition remained undiagnosed and untreated until her second year of infancy.
Through her series, Alana aspires to use television as a vehicle to tell stories and be a catalyst for positive change.
"I received my experimental cochlear implant surgery in Australia and have had a special relationship with the country ever since," says Nichols.