Paper long abstract:

Traditional Owners of Australia valued trees for a range of cultural purposes and these now veteran trees are generally not valued highly and are often lost during the development of settlements and regions, including road and rail corridors. The project aim was to increase awareness and knowledge on Culturally Modified Trees and specifically Aboriginal scarred trees which now exist as veteran trees in fragmented landscapes through a series of workshops.

Scarred trees are significant to Aboriginal culture as they were a source of material for construction, craft and have important intangible values (e.g. spiritual beliefs). Scarred trees now provide information to modern cultural groups on artefact manufacture and are of irreplaceable value as these remnants provide knowledge and links to past practices. The need exists to mitigate developmental impacts and other encroachment pressures in association with increased conservation efforts to ensure scarred trees are not vulnerable and remain a viable part of our cultural heritage until natural senescence.

Educational workshops discussing the management of these significant trees were developed and held in subtropical and tropical regions of Eastern Australia. The planning and delivery of the project was co-managed with Indigenous groups. The focus of the workshops was the convergence of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Western Scientific Knowledge to explore ways of managing veteran and scarred trees.

A number of examples will be presented on veteran tree management options that integrate Indigenous values and cultural management and touch on important considerations that are crucial to engaging with Indigenous groups.