Personal
For her first 10 years, Emma grew up in the coastal country
around southern NSW; followed by 10 years in the high country of
Victoria. At the age of 20, she moved to far North Queensland where
the tropics got into her blood. For the first time she spent time
with Aboriginal elders on country – she would never
experience the landscape the same way again. Since then her life
has been a series of learning experiences in a variety of settings,
including studying anthropology and human geography at university
– but the most valuable lessons continue to be learnt when
spending time with people on country.
Professional
Emma has experience working to support Indigenous governance and
participation in conservation management both with non-government
conservation organisations such as The Wilderness Society, where in
the mid 1990s she was involved in the Starcke campaign on Cape
York; and with peak Indigenous organisations such as Balkanu, where
in the late 1990s she worked as part of a team to develop and
support sub-regional land and sea management programs within Cape
York Peninsula. Her learning continued with fifteen months of
community based fieldwork in Aurukun where she participated in
on-ground resource management activities with the Wik and Kugu Land
and Sea Management Program. Then for a number of years she worked
as a lecturer with the School of Indigenous Australian Studies at
James Cook University in Cairns teaching in various areas including
Indigenous resource management, and supporting Indigenous
participation in tertiary studies.
Project
Emma joined the NAILSMA team in December 2009. Emma is Bush
Heritage Australia’s (BHA) Indigenous Partnerships Officer
for North Australia. BHA is a non-profit, non-government
organisation which aims to protect the natural environment through
the acquisition and/or management of land or water of high
conservation value or environmental significance. BHA also builds
partnerships with other organisations and individuals to support
conservation management of land that is managed by others.
BHA’s Conservation on Country Program focuses on building
these partnerships for conservation management with traditional
owners of country.
Emma’s main roles are to work with NAILSMA and Indigenous
people to support conservation management on land already owned and
managed by Indigenous people; to support the purchase of
ecologically and culturally significant country; and to support the
participation of Indigenous people in the management of Bush
Heritage reserves. Emma’s initial focus is on regions and
projects where Bush Heritage already has partnerships (Cape York,
the Gulf of Carpentaria, Kimberley and West Arnhem), but her role
is also to work on development of new project areas in
collaboration with NAILSMA staff.
More information about Bush Heritage Australia can be found at
www.bushheritage.org.au
