ARC Linkage Project to approach fauna conservation through Indigenous knowledge

CACHE Co-Deputy Director Dr Emilie Ens is leading a new Australian Research Council Linkage Project to develop an animal conservation strategy through the integration of Indigenous knowledge and Western science.

The project “Warrakan’puy Djäma: A new biocultural approach to fauna conservation” forms a partnership between university researchers and colleagues from the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area in northeastern Arnhem Land, home of the Yolgnu cultural group. The team, including Hon A/Prof. Frances Morphy (ANU), Prof. Craig Moritz (ANU), Prof. Sam Banks (Charles Darwin University), Mr Lirrpiya Mununggurr, Mr Harry Thorman (formerly of the Laynhapuy IPA), Dr Luke Preece (The Nature Conservancy), postdoctoral researcher Dr Shaina Russell, and PhD student Bridget Campbell, will use cross-cultural science to find solutions to the problem of species loss, through fauna surveys with Yolngu Elders, Rangers, and youth, knowledge mapping, and multimedia knowledge sharing platforms.

By recording and utilising Yolgnu knowledge of local fauna, the project seeks not only to work towards preserving threatened species but also threatened culture.

Above: Yirralka Ranger Yalapuru Gumana holding a ḻakḻak (Gilbert’s Dragon, Lophognathus gilberti), Koolatong River, 2020. Left: Yirralka Rangers Nyemburr Munungurr and Djurrayum Murrunyina researching species names. Photos by  Dr Shaina Russell.