Northern Gulf Indigenous Savanna Group
For the first time, a project in Queensland has helped communities across a vast region work together to achieve common goals. The seven different indigenous language groups residing in the Northern Gulf, have been given a new opportunity to participate in natural resource management through the Northern Gulf Indigenous Savanna Group (NGISG).
The NGISG comprises two elected members from each participating Indigenous community. Its Coordinator, Ron Archer, believes the group draws its strength from its focus on working together and cooperating.
"It's the only way to get things done," he said.
Ron spends much of his time travelling the length of the 800-kilometre region, negotiating with various language groups, land owners and graziers to devise cooperative solutions to land management problems. Balancing the conflicting needs and values of each party is no easy matter, but Ron believes respect and understanding go a long way.
"It's been encouraging to see interest in what we do increases as graziers see what's going on next door and realise that their concerns are not being ignored. They're realising that we try to find the best possible solution for everybody," Ron said.
Ron believes that the concerns of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people typically centre on behaviour on the land. Just as graziers do not want too many guns or dogs on their land, Indigenous communities want important sites respected and preserved.
The NGISG's attempt to balance these concerns can be seen through a number of their recent fencing works. One of these is at a major waterhole at Delta Downs, a burial ground that the local community wished to preserve because of its cultural importance. The NGISG helped the community form a partnership with the concerned grazier and now the site is fenced and the grazier has been provided with an alternative water source for stock.
A number of other sites across the gulf have also been fenced to protect sites and ensure water quality for the local graziers.
Another project the NGISG has assisted with is the creation of a greenhouse for the Djungan people. The greenhouse is designed to be both a research and education resource on bush medicine and bush tucker for the local community.
"We have a few hectares where we can give school children the chance to go out and identify these plants themselves, learning about where they can be found and what they do. Some of these kids have these plants in their backyards and don't even know what they're for, so we think the greenhouse will be a great asset to the community."
Ron also said that the project would provide a chance to find out why certain bush medicines achieve the results they do, a subject about which little is known.
The NGISG is also facilitating a program to take people back to the country and show them sites of cultural significance. At the same time, the group, equipped with a GPS locator, will be recording information that can be used to create the region's first maps of Indigenous sites.
"Mapping and training go hand in hand, so now we have involved an IT expert who can teach us, and especially the young people, how to use the software."
Ron names the Ewamian people's biggest success as being the number of graziers who have signed Indigenous Land Use Agreements with the help of the NGISG.
According to Ron, there are already a number of pieces of legislation that deal with Indigenous access to land. The Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA), which was devised when four graziers approached the Ewamian community hoping to sign access agreements, goes one step further than standard legislation, detailing how people should behave on the land and how they should care for it.
Ron is proud of the ILUA's success.
"It really has snowballed. We now have over 20 pastoralists on board," he said.
"It's a historical achievement for us," Ron said. "We've been able to establish a number of productive working relationships in a region that has not always been known for its ability to get along. It's been remarkable that we could achieve all this in just a year and a half."
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