Indigenous knowledge, land management and biocultural diversity on Kaanju Ngaachi, Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers, Cape York Peninsula
The loss of Indigenous knowledge, language and culture is as significant a problem regionally and globally as are the current physical changes threatening biodiversity. A growing body of literature and an increasing number of international symposiums and conventions are beginning to acknowledge the integral link between cultural and biological diversity and the role of Indigenous people in the debate on climate change and biodiversity extinction. However, in Australia government is slow to recognise and support the important role of Indigenous Australians (and their knowledge) in biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management. Indeed, the integrity and persistent of Indigenous cultures in Australia are increasingly under threat under the current policy environment that is questioning the viability of small remote Indigenous communities and continuing to focus on the centralisation of people and services.
In this paper I argue that government needs to recognise the legitimacy of Indigenous governance and the integral role of Indigenous people and their knowledge in providing solutions to the biodiversity extinction crisis. I discuss the contribution the Chuulangun community on Kaanju Ngaachi on Cape York Peninsula are making to sustainable land management and cultural and biological conservation. Chuulangun’s initiatives include sustainable homelands and economic development and the establishment of the first Indigenous Protected Area on Cape York. Chuulangun’s approach is based on Indigenous governance and a broad and detailed knowledge of the ecology of our Ngaachi that includes information about species and habitats, seasonal and generational weather patterns and changes, the effects of fire, and ancient cosmology about the formation of landforms and species. This intimate understanding of the environment is based on many thousands of years of empirical observations and sustainable land management practices and has been passed down through Kaanju bloodline to the current generation of landowners and managers living on country.