Kimberley Appropriate Economics Interim Report - Australian ...

Is there a role for Aboriginal knowledge and cultural values? If there is, how do we make sure they are
recognised, recorded, practiced, passed on, and even incorporated into laws?
How do we leave our children with a healthy & abundant environment, full of bio-diversity, with clean air and
water, and a healthy population?
Is the time now right for strategic long-term planning, covering all generations and land users, backed up by
both scientific and cultural research?
Aboriginal people do share the benefits of healthy country, and we do recognize that in modern times we have
to make a new sort of living from our country. There can be no sustainable living from country that is unwell.
We want a future were we have the same opportunities as all other people.
Aboriginal people are the traditional owners and occupiers of the region. This is now accepted and recognized
by the community and in the courts.
In today’s context, there are other strong arguments for Aboriginal involvement in managing country.
We make up around fifty percent of the Kimberley population, and in fact more than 75% of people who live
here for more than 5 years – after all, this is our home.
Aboriginal people comprise 90% of people living on country (outside the major towns).
Aboriginal people form a major part of the Kimberley economy. We own and manage 30% of Kimberley
pastoral stations, and are involved in a number of Agreements with private enterprise.
Native Title has been recognized over more than 30% of the Kimberley, with applications lodged over much of
the remainder. Our connection to country is clear, recent, and provable.
There are many Aboriginal people alive in the Kimberley who had first contact, this is they where born in the
bush and grow up there until there early teens.
Native Title is at last securing strong land tenure outcomes for our people, leading to many arrangements and
agreements. These help to deliver Aboriginal engagement in land management activities and decisions.
So these historical, economic, and population figures show the central role for Aboriginal people in natural
resource management in the Kimberley. This involvement is already occurring through a number of processes,
including increasing involvement and co-operative arrangements with other groups.
We are in a strong position to determine the future of the Kimberley. What will that future be?
Will the important values of country be recognized?
Will people understand, practice, and pass on the cultural responsibility of caring for country?
Will country sustain life: plants, animals, and people?
Will our rivers, waterholes and groundwater be clean and healthy (we are worried our water will be sprinkled on
Perth lawns)
Can our children expect bush foods and medicines to be abundant?
Are our important sites going to be looked after and protected?
Appropriate and sustainable land use works with country, not against it. If we continue to believe that country is
central to who we are, how can we possibly treat it badly.
The big thing we need to think about first is our attitude to country. All of Australia needs to look deep and long
about its attitude to country. We in the Kimberley have the opportunity to start caring for country before too
much damage is done.
The ‘ways of thinking’ about country need to redefined so that we can all build a
strong culture that includes recognition and respect for traditional knowledge and rights, and for owners of
country. It should be a culture where people are proud to speak up for country, where everyone agrees on the
importance of fairness and equity. Traditional land management practices must be used to maintain a balance
between the past, the present, and the future.
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