Syllabus bites: Traditional knowledge and sustainable ecosystems

Traditional knowledge

Indigenous Protected Areas

Link to Indigenous Protected Areas – Overview video on Vimeo

Indigenous Protected Areas exemplify sustainable development because they:

  • recognise, respect and retain traditional knowledge and cultural practices

  • model the combination of traditional knowledge and cultural practices with Western science to empower communities to create sustainable ecosystems.

Read about these four IPA case studies.

Warul Kawa Island IPA

Read this summary and follow the link to the fact sheet to identify the threats to the conservation of sustainable ecosystems on Warul Kawa Island and management strategies to overcome those threats.

Research more about the communities of the Torres Strait Islands. The National Environmental Research Program has a number of programs in which Western science is being used to understand and support conservation and management of sustainable ecosystems in Torres Strait.

Uunguu IPA

Uunguu is a large IPA containing significant Aboriginal rock art on the remote but spectacular northern Kimberly coast.

The Yawuru people live south of Uunguu, near Broome. Their seasonal calendar has seven seasons. Read about how it influences daily activities.

Tyrendarra and Lake Condah IPA

Tyrendarra and Lake Condah IPAs are closely associated areas containing ancient ruins and evidence of aquaculture.

Nearby in the Grampians National Park are the Brambuk homelands. Many of its Aboriginal inhabitants retreated to Lake Condah after contact with European settlers. Learn about the six seasons described in the Brambuk seasonal calendar and how they impact on daily activities.

Warddeben and Djelk IPAs

Arnhem Land has two contrasting IPAs: Warddekken, the dissected sandstone plateau of western Arnhem Land and Djelk, coastal Arnhem Land.

Identify conservation issues and strategies to achieve more sustainable ecosystems in these areas.

To the south-east, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Yanyuwa seasonal calendar describes five seasons.

The article Return to country in Australian Geographic 110 (September and October 2012) includes case studies on Uunguu, Djelk, Lake Condah and Warddeben IPAs. View the online gallery.

IPA culture and benefits

Link to Indigenous Protected Areas – Culture video on Vimeo

Miriwoong seasonal calendar

The Syllabus Bites: Caring for Country resource has links to many resources that describe traditional knowledge and cultural practices that support sustainable ecosystem management.

See how traditional knowledge translates into cultural practices by watching the video at the bottom of the Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring website. Here, the Miriwoong people from near Kununurra developed a calendar from their observations of plants and animals and used this to plan food gathering activities.