Spotlight on caring for country

A new book being launched this week challenges policymakers to re-imagine the role of Indigenous people and practices in managing Australia's environment in the 21st century. People on Country, Vital Landscapes, Indigenous Futures draws on results from a five-year collaborative research project between academics from The Australian National University and seven Indigenous land management organisations in the Top End of the Northern Territory and two in New South Wales. Coedited by Professor Jon Altman and Seán Kerins from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, the collection of essays documents the struggles by Indigenous people to conserve and rehabilitate their ancestral lands under the Caring for Country movement. "Caring for country is a way to fight for country. To keep our country and culture strong so we can grow as Aboriginal people and have a future that means something to us," write senior Garawa man Jack Green and Warramungu man Jimmy Morrison in their essay No more yardin' us up like cattle. Professor Altman said the project, supported by the Sidney Myer Fund, has substantially increased the body of evidence attesting to the positive social and environmental outcomes that Caring for Country is delivering from both Indigenous and western perspectives. "With the Indigenous estate now covering well over 20 per cent of the continent encompassing areas of globally significant biodiversity and cultural value, Caring for Country needs to be brought from the margins to the centre of our national conversation on climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion," he said.