Our AGM is coming up on the 10th of November. It'll be at the King Sound Resort in Derby, starting at 9.30am. All members are welcome and some limited assistance is provided. Click through on the notice above for more information and to fill in a proxy voting form if you need to. Hope to see you there!
Sheffield has no heritage or native title consents to operate the Thunderbird Project
Nominated representatives of the Mount Jowlaenga #2 claim group and Walalakoo Aboriginal Corporation met last week with their authorised representatives KRED Enterprises on Sheffield Resources’ proposed Thunderbird Project. The Thunderbird Project affects both groups’ native title lands and waters. Sheffield has no heritage or native title consents to operate the Thunderbird Project from either group.
A representative of the groups stated, “We stand together, with KRED as our representative, to protect our lands and waters from the actions of companies that disrespect our native title. We will not let companies bully us away from the standards of agreements that our families and ancestors worked so hard to establish in the Kimberley. Companies who want to operate on our native title lands will need to engage properly with us through our representatives, to develop a relationship based on trust.”
Mount Jowlaenga and Walalakoo Aboriginal Corporation have invited representatives from the United Nations to visit the Kimberley in the coming weeks. The groups plan to discuss with the UN reps the actions of companies that seek to undermine and disregard native title and self-determination.
Community Empowerment - providing decision-making tools to Nyikina Mangala People
In the far North-West of Australia, Nyikina Mangala Traditional Owners are partnering with The Nature Conservancy on a range of exciting projects. One of the things we're doing, is improving our community's capacity in planning and decision-making, thus helping Traditional Owners to fulfil our cultural obligation to look after country.
The Nyikina Mangala community participated with other Kimberley Traditional Owner groups in a week-long Healthy Country Planning workshop in Derby. Moving forward, workshop participants will now apply their newly learned skills in the Nyikina Mangala Healthy Country Planning project over the coming months.
Building on key components of the Healthy Country Plan, The Nature Conservancy is also working with Walalakoo Aboriginal Corporation on a "Development by Design" Project. This project will help our community analyse implications of development projects and will help us to make informed decisions around natural and cultural land-use trade-offs, that balance social, cultural and economic benefits.
At the end of the collaboration, our people will have developed a Healthy Country Plan to guide our land management decisions and will have tools available to balance trade-offs and help optimise overall benefits of development projects.
The Story of Woonyoomboo
If you haven't already seen it, Jarlmadangah Community has put together a creation story about the main Nyikina ancestor, Woonyoomboo. Keen to check it out? It's available for sale here.
What do virtual reality and healthy country have in common?
Imagine exploring Nyikina Mangala country from the comfort of a lounge room in Broome, or in Perth, or even in Paris … Discussions are currently underway between The Nature Conservancy, Walalakoo Aboriginal Corporation (WAC) and the Kimberley Land Council, around the development of a virtual reality (VR) project. The idea is to make people aware that Traditional Owners have a complex and sophisticated relationship with country, and to change the narrative around indigenous land management so there’s a focus on the criticality of our role in achieving sustainable solutions. VR might be a good way to do this, as an immersive video platform can evoke greater empathy and connection with the subject of the film.
But this isn’t all … WAC have received funding from the Nature Conservancy to develop a Healthy Country Plan, which will provide a blueprint for the conservation and management of Nyikina Mangala country. Additionally, The Nature Conservancy are working with us on developing a world-first variation on the ‘Development by Design’ tool. Generally, ‘Development by Design’ assesses the impacts of future developments on natural systems, and offers solutions for ensuring their health over the long-term. Walalakoo are working with the Nature Conservancy to add an additional function to the tool—the ability to measure the impacts of development on cultural values. This project is happening in tangent with the Healthy Country Plan. We’ll be back in touch soon with more details!