The University of New England (UNE) is exploring establishing an Aboriginal Land and Sea Hub to recognise Indigenous knowledge systems as a science in their own right and support the revitalisation of cultural practices.
Indigenous land and sea managers from throughout NSW gathered at UNE for the first of a series of planning workshops on 21 June. Representatives of not-for-profit Aboriginal corporations, and managers of Indigenous Protected Areas and national parks have been widely consulted in the process.
Hub architect and leader, Wiradjuri man Shaun Hooper, hopes the hub will offer new educational pathways for Indigenous people and opportunities for culturally relevant research. By supporting the continuation of cultural practices and their adoption as part of land and sea management, the hub could herald a new era of caring for Country, Indigenous health and even reconciliation.
Community-led research
"In the past, Aboriginal knowledge and cultural practices have been bolted on or integrated into Western science," Shaun says. "Our hub recognises those practices as a distinct scientific discipline that can and should be mobilised to help Indigenous people to play a greater role in managing Country for the benefit of all Australians.
We want to empower communities to undertake their own research.
"Instead of university researchers going out and doing research on communities, we want to empower communities to undertake their own research. We want to build that capacity within the communities and to see Aboriginal science recognised as a legitimate discipline, which is revolutionary."
UNE Vice-Chancellor Professor Brigid Heywood says the hub could represent a powerful means of supporting Indigenous-led initiatives that ignite on-Country opportunities.
"It is a way for us to acknowledge traditional Aboriginal wisdom and strengthen regional communities. The goal here is also to establish new educational and employment pathways that address long-standing inequity," Professor Heywood says. "By helping to improve collaboration and engagement between Aboriginal land and sea managers and regional education and research hubs, we hope to contribute to both community and environmental resilience. This initiative is also one of the foundational cornerstones that will underpin UNE's new STEM Quarter and inspires new Indigenous cultural practices and management as a component of a modern respectful Australia."
Honouring connections to Country
In Aboriginal culture, people have a raft of complex relationships in Country with plants and animals, sacred sites and ancestors. Those relationships are expressed through cultural practices, laws, languages, ceremonies and stories.
Aboriginal land management is about honouring and maintaining those connections to Country.
"Aboriginal land management is about honouring and maintaining those connections to Country, which helps to maintain healthy people and law," says Shaun, an Aboriginal cultural fire practitioner. "Aboriginal land and sea management is important in all Country, but especially where the community owns the land, in Indigenous Protected Areas, or as part of joint management relationships with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service."
It is also more of what broader Australian society is demanding, Shaun says.
"During the last bushfire season, the Australian community was screaming out in support of Aboriginal land management to help manage the bushfire threat," he says. "The recent review of the EPBC Act and royal commission into the bushfires have both highlighted the importance of Aboriginal knowledge being included in future land management strategies. It's emerging that a more resilient environment, in which non-Aboriginal people understand Aboriginal knowledge systems, also assists with reconciliation."
Novel approach to nurture, protect and promote
The Aboriginal Land and Sea Hub aims to provide a transition for Indigenous people from vocational education and training to higher education, with the support of scholarships and internships. Aboriginal communities, government departments and academics are now having input into its development, and interest is growing throughout NSW. UNE's recent approval of a PhD and Masters in Aboriginal Cultural Practice will further support the hub's goals.
"The hub will take a novel approach to nurture, protect and promote culture and cultural practice, enabling it to inform all research and education," Shaun says. "There is very little formal research on many of these management practices from an Aboriginal perspective, so it will build the Aboriginal science research capacity."
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Heiko Daniel, the interim Chair of the Aboriginal Land and Sea Hub Steering Committee, says that the collaboration will provide a strong foundation for a holistic and inclusive approach to land and water management, and illustrates the university's genuine commitment to its Reconciliation Action Plan.
We hope that Aboriginal cultural practices become a greater part of our research offering.
"Consultation is well underway to provide opportunities for greater engagement with Aboriginal communities, starting with this series of workshops," Professor Daniel says. "We hope that Aboriginal cultural practices become a greater part of our research offering."
Shaun's own research is a prime example. He has recently completed a Masters by Research at UNE on what Wiradjuri language and story can tell us about approaches to cultural burning, and is about to commence a PhD investigating the integration of ceremonial and cultural practices (including cultural burning) into Aboriginal land and sea management. He hopes his own experiences and findings, as well as those to come from other Aboriginal researchers, help to achieve widely held community ambitions to care for Country.
"Aboriginal education and research through the hub would feed directly into planning instruments - the plans of management and cultural burning plans - for looking after land and sea within communities," Shaun says.
"Students would learn how to translate their cultural practices and knowledge into a language that can potentially be used for landscape management all over the state. A successful Aboriginal Land and Sea Hub would change the ballpark."
