Paper short abstract:

Over the last 13 years Macquarie University ecologists have worked with Aboriginal communities of east Arnhem Land, northern Australia, to develop a suite of cross-cultural ecological research, management and capacity projects for reconciliation in conservation.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last thirteen years the cross-cultural ecology lab based at Macquarie University in Sydney has co-evolved a suite of research, management and capacity building projects with the late Ngandi Elder Mrs C. W. Daniels, the Yirralka Rangers and Aboriginal communities of east Arnhem Land. This long-term collaboration brings together local Indigenous knowledge and Western science to better understand local environmental issues in the eastern Arnhem Land Indigenous Protected Areas and make recommendations for local cross-cultural management and education. Research projects focussed on understanding wetland health, impacts of invasive feral ungulates (mainly buffalo and pig) and biodiversity decline. Recommendations for multifunctional landscape management for feral ungulates and nuanced burning programs that protect culturally significant and government listed threatened species have occurred. Integral to the research is incorporation of local Aboriginal cultural knowledge and local languages and the involvement of Elders and youth in sharing and maintaining traditional knowledge. Support for youth involvement in conservation and leadership was also supported by the development of the Wuyagiba Bush University which offers cross-cultural University courses out bush and a pathway to higher education, filling a 30-year University education gap in southern Arnhem Land. This Reconciliation through Conservation "down under" program has seen many successes and also many challenges which we will discuss in our presentation.