Using Indigenous Knowledge to Understand Drought Resilience

“Traditional owners are subject matter experts. They have a different set of skills than Western scientists, often better and often a lot more efficient and their knowledge is so rich [and] complex, and at a kind of higher level than Western science. All this cultural knowledge and data is evidence. It’s factual evidence as well, which needs to be implemented into how we shape and create policies.”

Max Fabila is a Jabirr Jabirr man and Indigenous scientist at CSIRO, working together with the Narran Lake Nature Reserve Joint Management Committee to better understand the cultural signs and understanding of drought resilience. Together with UTS’ Professor and Kamilaroi man, Bradley Moggridge (PhD), Max leads the research team. Spending time on Country at Dharriwaa with Yuwaalaraay man and Narran Lake JMC Chairperson Jason Wilson has lead to deep connections and a better understanding of the cultural signs and knowledge of drought resilience.

“There’s so much science around at the moment and all this science is wonderful. It’s Western science and it’s telling us about the breeze, it’s telling us about the birds and the bees and everything, but our stuff is exactly the same, if not better. It’s just a matter of injecting it in the process. They’ve got all their signs, but they haven’t got ours yet. ” – Jason Wilson

Image credit/CSIRO