ABOUT
This website is primarily an archive of my consultancy reports, academic papers and other documents relating to Indigenous Land and Sea Management in Australia that I have authored or co-authored over the last 40 years. My intention is to make available documents, particularly those prepared in the pre-internet era, that may have disappeared into the “grey” literature but which record important milestones in the development of policies and practices in Indigenous Land and Sea Country Management across Australia. Because Indigenous Land and Sea Country planning and management initiatives have been led and driven by many Indigenous groups and organisations across Australia, supported by a diversity of Federal, State and Territory programs, there is currently no national archive that documents the history and evolution of this movement. Perhaps such an archive will be developed sometime in the future. In the meantime I’m keen to make available this collection of documents so that Indigenous people and other interested parties can access information about some of the key steps, challenges and successes along the way.
This archive also gives me an opportunity to reflect and provide personal perspectives on the emergence and development of key initiatives, such as co-management of national parks, Indigenous Ranger groups, Indigenous Protected Areas and Country-based Planning, over the last 40 years. In making these reflections my intention is to add value and transparency to the documents, as a privileged observer and participant contributing to the these emerging ideas, policies and initiatives. My comments, however, merely reflect my personal recollections and perspectives and in no way should be taken to represent the views or opinions of any Indigenous person or organisation, or of any other party that participated in the initiatives referred to.
Documents and associated reflections archived on this website can be accessed by clicking on the REPORTS & PUBLICATIONS tag, or via one of the pages listed below. The content of these pages inevitably overlap and links between pages are provided where appropriate.
RANGERS
This page covers the training and employment of Indigenous Rangers as employees of national park agencies from the 1970s, the emergence of the first independent Indigenous Ranger groups in the 1980s, to the current extensive network of Indigenous Ranger groups across Australia,
NATIONAL PARKS
This page covers the emergence of Aboriginal-owned, co-managed national parks in the late 1970s in the Northern Territory and the later development of other national park co-management approaches across Australia.
INDIGENOUS PROTECTED AREAS
This page tracks the development of the Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) concept in the 1990s, the subsequent uptake of this approach to managing Country by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups across Australia, and the policy evolution from IPAs being based solely on Indigenous-owned land to being based on the holistic concept of Country, including Sea Country, irrespective of current legal ownership.
COUNTRY-BASED PLANNING
This page describes the re-emergence of “Country” as the appropriate geographic and cultural scale for the planning, governance and management of Australia’s land and sea environments, and how this approach can be enable Traditional Owner groups to lead and coordinate the management of their traditional land and sea estates whether or not they are currently the legal owners of those areas.
SEA COUNTRY
This page covers a range of issues relating to Sea Country engagement, governance, engagement, planning and management, overlapping with some issues addressed in the other sections. Sea Country topics include:
~ Indigenous engagement in marine parks
~ Sea Country Indigenous Protected Areas
~ Indigenous resource use & management
PROJECTS
This page outlines my consultancy, research and teaching projects over the last 40 years. Where appropriate, links are provided to outcome reports, publications and reflections arising from these projects.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
This page summarises the trajectory of my life, with commentary on how my life experiences and interests, including sailing and swiftlets, intersected with my consultancy and research work supporting Indigenous Land and Sea Country management.