This eye-opening Living Nature 2021 session explores the depth of Aboriginal science, the rights of nature, and the unprecedented land grab that threatens Australia’s Kimberley region.
Indigenous rights activist, Dr. Anne Poelina and film director, Nick Wrathall share lessons from one of the world’s most ecologically diverse areas, the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia.
The Kimberley is one of the last untouched coastlines left on Earth, and home to 200 remote Aboriginal communities–the oldest surviving culture in the world. Right now, the Kimberley and its people are under threat. Mining, pastoralism, and agriculture are driving an unprecedented industrial land grab. What does this mean for Australia’s First People? And what does this mean for their homeland, their culture and their knowledge?
Though many refer to Indigenous knowledge as traditional, ecological knowledge, it has developed through observation, experimentation, and analysis – just like Western science. Is it time for global leaders to recognise Indigenous knowledge as a science and as an essential tool for Australia’s future environmental efforts?
Join this Living Nature discussion as we explore:
- How are the Kimberley’s Indigenous leaders taking action?
- How can Aboriginal science help us address climate change?
- What would progress whilst living harmoniously with the planet look like?
Anne and Nick recently made a film together called ‘Undermined – Tales from the Kimberly’ which you can learn more about at underminedfilm.com.
Thank you to our speakers and host:
- Dr Anne Poelina, Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, is a Nyikina Warrwa Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of WA. She is a Peter Cullen Fellow, Board and Councillor with the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), Adjunct Research Fellow with Charles Darwin University, Northern Institute and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with Notre Dame University Broome. Her work explores the entrepreneurial ‘New Economy’ opportunities for Indigenous people in relation to green collar jobs in diverse, science, culture, heritage and conservation economies. Dr Poelina promotes the need to include traditional ecological knowledge, First Law and the rights of nature to the solutions for planetary health and wellbeing.
- Albert Wiggan (who couldn’t join us for the live event) is a Bardi-Kija-Nyul Nyul man from the beautiful waters of Boddergron (Cygnet Bay) on the Dampier Peninsula, who is passionate about culture, country and Indigenous science. When the government tried to build the world’s largest LNG plant at James Price Point, Albert lobbied the Supreme Court and fronted a blockade until the developer withdrew from the project. He now works as an environmental consultant with the Nyul Nyul Rangers, is Deputy Chair of the Kimberley Indigenous Saltwater Science Project, Indigenous Chair for Bilbies Australia’s National Recovery Team, and is the Nyul Nyul representative on the board of the Kimberley Land Council. Albert has toured international stages as a speaker and musician with John Butler, and has worked in film and television for the last ten years. He lives with his wife and three children on Nyul Nyul Country in Beagle Bay.
- Nicholas Wrathall is an award-winning director and producer known for Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amnesia which opened to acclaim at Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed theatrically by IFC. He was first recognized for Abandoned: The Betrayal of America’s Immigrants, featured on PBS Independent Lens and winning the 2001 Alfred I. duPont Columbia Award for Broadcast Journalism. Other documentaries include Endless Caravan, Haitian Eksperyans and The Modern Gulag.
- Jon Bowermaster, a writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. Jon has written eleven books and produced/directed more than thirty documentary films. His feature documentaries include ‘Dear President Obama,’ ‘Antarctica, on the Edge,’ ‘After the Spill’ and ‘Ghost Fleet.’ (oceans8films.com)
“Our humanity is dependent on these ecosystems being healthy under the guardianship of #Indigenous people.”
–Dr. Anne Poelina
