The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, recently held its second annual forum bringing together Traditional Owners from across Northern Australia to share their experiences and concerns around a variety of land and sea management and Indigenous knowledge related issues.

The NAILSMA forum was held at Bizant in Lakefield National Park, Queensland, 12–13 September 2005. About 70 Traditional Owners (TO) from across northern Australia attended. NAILSMA coordinator Joe Morrison said the get-together, held deep in Lama Lama country in the Cape York hinterland 80 km north-west of Laura, provided an opportunity for NAILSMA staff to report back to TOs on what had happened over the year and to seek their further endorsement for the alliance and ongoing NAILSMA projects.

"We held a highly successful NAILSMA board meeting in Cairns yesterday, during which we floated a number of ideas aimed at securing people’s rights to manage and benefit from their country in a post land rights era, and we want to follow up on these ideas during the forum and over the coming months,” Joe said.

He added that in the meeting Peter Yu, NAILSMA Chair and representative on the Tropical Savannas CRC Board, had talked about a ‘culture-based economy’. Peter said that northern Australia is in the grip of a resources boom and Indigenous Australians as major land owners and managers should benefit from this boom with innovative and culturally appropriate planning for commercial development.

“Now is the time to build on and move to the next phase of claiming and defending rights to country, to a time when our people can get relief, enjoyment and benefits out of exercising these rights,” Peter said.

According to Steve Johnson, NAILSMA Project Officer, TOs have made it clear that Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is the key to the success of this next phase. For this reason the forum was built around this theme. Steve added that the meeting took place after the hand back of country to Lama Lama People, which provided an appropriate setting for the talks that followed.

“After years of struggle, Lama Lama people have some of their land back and this is something to celebrate,” said Steve, “but now, like many TOs, they need real time support, not just empty words, to enter the next phase and benefit from the rights they should enjoy on their country”.

TOs talked about this need for support and many other things in some workshops which were held on the second day of the forum. One of the most important things discussed was the connection between people, country and Indigenous Knowledge.

Col Lawrence, a senior TO from Kowanyama, said that in many cases, when Indigenous people got their land back, it was sick because it had not been looked after properly.

“That country, government bugger him up,” said Col.

Dean Yibarbuk from Arnhem Land followed up on Col’s words adding that where TOs had been taken off their country the land had suffered. “The land is crying itself, because there [are] no people,” Dean said.

John Christopherson from Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in the Northern Territory expressed these concerns, saying that “Country need[s] laughter. If we don’t look after country, we’ll shrivel up”.

Steve said that it was clear from this and other comments made during the forum, that the health of people and country was closely connected and for TOs Indigenous Knowledge or Law is the key to maintaining the health of both.

“We built this meeting around an Indigenous Knowledge theme so that TOs could reclaim ownership of the term and what they mean by it, which is sometimes different to how whitefellas see things,” explained Steve.

“For many countrymen caring for country includes a whole cultural dimension—ceremony, ritual, hunting, harvest, family, fire and knowledge—where all things are connected and make an essential contribution to the maintenance of healthy people and healthy country”.

Don Banu from the Torres Strait summed up this general feeling stating that “Indigenous Knowledge needs to form the basis for all [land and sea] management plans” on the Indigenous estate.

However, all the TOs noted that it was hard to get proper support for these activities. Some of the main challenges faced in applying Indigenous Knowledge to caring for country were discussed in detail in the workshops.

Key areas of concern included transfer of knowledge, ownership and knowledge protection, education; and developing linkages with other TOs and research organisations.

Steve said that information from the forum and other workshops held across northern Australia will form part of a strategy NAILSMA is putting together to help TOs get the support they need to look after kin and country properly, their way.

“We are hoping that the strategy will provide Indigenous Land and Sea Managers with a valuable resource for getting business done as well as educating whitefellas as to what’s important on country and how to work properly with Indigenous Australians, ” said Steve.

It was made very clear during the forum that Indigenous Knowledge is vital to successful cultural land and sea management.

“The knowledge is very powerful. If that knowledge is gone, we are gone too,” said Dean Yibarbuk.

A report of the forum can be downloaded from this page. A draft copy of the strategy will be available mid-2006. For more information contact Steve Johnson, details below.