Inaugural Oration of the Chair of Indigenous Studies “Shoulder to Shoulder; We still gotta role to play”

In recognition of her lifetime of achievements, the life of Lucy Ngarbal Marshall AM will be celebrated as part of the inaugural Oration of the Chair of Indigenous Studies. Honoring her contribution to research with respect for her leadership, wisdom and life of practice, the Oration reflects a journey and the lived experience of an amazing Kimberley woman. Anne Poelina’s presentation will include a short film and memoirs of an outstanding human being. A dignified wise woman, with the power to commit to memory generations of cultural knowledge and practice, Ngarbal dreamt that we would all act and work together to share our spirit, liyan. Please see download for more information

First Law - Multispecies Justice & the Wellbeing of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River and All People

First law is the spirit that connects all things and promotes multispecies justice through a unity pathway for collaboration, cooperation, and the sharing of information to ensure peace, harmony, balance, and wellbeing. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council encapsulates collective guardianship responsibility and original Australians’ authority to protect Martuwarra’s right to flow as a sacred living entity for generations to come. Through ‘cooperation, unity, organisation and cultural synthesis, First Peoples are decolonising through an earth-centred regional governance approach. This approach focuses on improving cultural wellbeing and resilience, and requirements for the transition to justice, hope and freedom. We seek pathways for cooperation, for collaboration and for sharing information so we can collectively, as ‘family’, co-design the world we want to leave to our children and their children’s children for generations to come. In this presentation, the first half hour is a film about First Law - Multispecies Justice. Dr Poelina will then share how the Martuwarrra, RiverOfLife as the authority is guiding our work and building and strengthening A Coalition of Hope to ensure Martuwarra Fitzroy River Always was Always Will Be

Voices for the Mardoowarra

The Mardoowarra/ Fitzroy River, at 733 kms is the longest river in the Kimberley region of WA. Its catchment area is almost 100,000km2, and the floodplains are up to 15km wide. Management of its catchment is at a crossroad, with diverse and conflicting visions for its future. Today, mining, fossil fuel extraction including unconventional gas, and large-scale irrigated agriculture are some of the invasive development proposals that threaten water security in the Kimberley region. Dr Poelina champions the need to recognise, value and conserve cultural and environmental values of the Mardoowarra by not overdeveloping water resources in the Fitzroy Catchment. The presentation includes a film (30 minutes) to account for the under-recognised and under-counted values of this globally unique River and Indigenous peoples. Importantly, the Mardoowarra’s Right to Life, bridging culture and nature starts with explaining and sharing on country; understanding how and why management and protection of the landscape and eco-systems are integral to human heritage and culture. Bringing these threads together, a picture of the River emerges: as a national treasure with ecological, archaeological, heritage and cultural values of global significance

Martuwarra First Law Multi-Species Justice Declaration of Interdependence: Wellbeing of Land, Living Waters, and Indigenous Australian People

The thesis is comprised of experiential research, poetry, film and peer reviewed publications, and book chapters culminating in twelve chapters and two appendices. The study is in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The study used an Indigenous decolonising research paradigm. It calls for a powerful policy and investment approach to the planning and development of regional governance. The author engaged ‘cooperative participative inquiry’ with leaders from six independent Indigenous Nations. These Nations are connected through Warloongarriy, the First Law for Martuwarra, the Fitzroy River. First law is the spirit that connects all things and promotes multispecies justice through a unity pathway for collaboration, cooperation, and the sharing of information to ensure peace, harmony, balance, and wellbeing. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council position of standing, encapsulates collective guardianship responsibility and original Australians authority to protect Martuwarra’s right to flow as a sacred living entity for generations to come. The central theme focuses on the responsibility of Indigenous leaders to facilitate knowledge sharing and strengthen community capacity building. Through ‘cooperation, unity, organisation and cultural synthesis’ First Peoples are decolonising through an earth-centred regional governance approach. This approach is focused on improving cultural wellbeing and resilience, and what is required to make the transition to justice, hope and freedom. We seek pathways for cooperation, for collaboration and for sharing information so we can collectively, as ‘family’, co-design the world we want to leave to our children and their children’s children for generations to come. This required a deeper understanding of the impact from continuing colonisation and the collective responsibility of original Australians to sustainably manage our culture and society, lands and living waters. Local Indigenous leaders who are under the guidance of senior cultural elders, believe it is time to send the dream out, to stand with ‘One Mind and One Voice’, to enliven our dream to reach our full potential as human beings. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council was established to partner with government in the stewardship of the planet’s greatest and most scarce resource, water. Martuwarra is a living ancestral serpent being, with the right to live and flow. vi After 150 years of invasive colonial development, it is time to do business differently, on just terms

Indigenous Water Policy workshop

First Peoples are leading the conversation about Indigenous water rights policy in Australia. Based on a recent review paper, this interactive workshop includes: An overview of some recent significant Aboriginal water policy documents, e.g. The Echuca Declaration, Lingiari Booklets, Mary River Statement and the Fitzroy River Declaration A screening of the 10minute film, Mardoowarra\u27s Right to Life! A discussion of the government ‘policy cycle’, the changes being considered at the State and Federal level, and possible paths from here

Martuwarra Country: A Historical Perspective (1838-present)

https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_reports/1000/thumbnail.jp

A Conservation and Management Plan for the National Heritage Listed Fitzroy River Catchment Estate (No. 1)

The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (Martuwarra Council) has prepared this document to engage widely and to articulate its ambitions and obligations to First Law, customary law and their guardianship authority and fiduciary duty to protect the Martuwarra’s natural and cultural heritage. This document outlines a strategic approach to Heritage Conservation and Management Planning, communicating to a wide audience, the planning principles, key initiatives, and aspirations of the Martuwarra Traditional Owners to protect their culture, identity and deep connection to living waters and land. Finer granularity of action items required to give effect to this Conservation and Management Plan for the National Heritage Listed Fitzroy River Catchment Estate are outlined in section 7 and which will be more fully explored by the Martuwarra Council in the coming months and years.https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_reports/1001/thumbnail.jp

Walk to country, talk to country

“It’s good to talk to Country,” says Anne Poelina, affirming that from a very early age, in the Kimberley region of northern Australia, Indigenous people are ‘taught Country’. They learn that the land is alive, that it has agency, and that it holds memories of our shared experiences, both human and other-than-human. “It’s good for your mental state to talk to Country,” Poelina continues, “to meditate on how your mind and heart, spirit and soul are aligned with the Earth on which you walk, knowing that when you walk on this Earth, the Earth can actually feel your presence, and with that vibration there is a transmission that is bouncing off this Earth, wanting us to understand that Earth can feel our presence. That’s how we speak to Country – it’s a different mindset. English speaks a different way.

Feeling and hearing country as research method

This paper explains Feeling and Hearing Country as an Australian Indigenous practice whereby water is life, Country is responsive, and Elders generate wisdom for a communicative order of things. The authors ask, as a society of Indigenous people and those no longer Indigenous to place, can we walk together in the task of collectively healing Country? The research method uses experiential, creative, propositional, and practical ways of knowing and being in and with local places. Evidence may take many forms based upon engagement with an animate, sentient world. The research method can generate new meanings, implications and insights, and regenerate practical knowledge of Country. As an Indigenous tradition, Feeling and Hearing Country can enable the regeneration of healing life energies. It can help freshen up stories, knowledges, and help link ancestral wisdom to the present while co-creating healthy futures. Feeling and Hearing Country can enliven the human spirit, landscapes, and all beings via a participative, creative process that is helpful for the planet at this climate time, when many humans have forgotten their place in the world. As a research method, Feeling and Hearing Country can support the unlearning of epistemological errors for reinstating vitality in things

Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings

Building on a methodology of Cooperative Inquiry, the outcomes of five interconnected place-based learning projects from Australia are synthesised and elaborated in this paper. The methodology can facilitate the everyday living and sharing of an Earth-based consciousness: one that enriches Transformative Sustainability Education (TSE) through recognising meanings and stories in landscape, and celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous-led environmental education is shown to link with one of the longest continuous environmental education systems in the world and it is contended that because of its ongoing history, environmental education carries a cultural obligation. In Australia, every landscape is Indigenous and storied, and all Australians have an inherent right to learn that joy in place, along with the responsibility to care for it. Teaching and learning a relationship with place as family, is one way that environmental education can lead that campaign. This place-based methodology is a lifetime commitment involving everyday actions for change, a whole-of-education dedication