Sea Country
Australia has the highest mammal extinction rates in the world in recent centuries, with a significant portion of the surviving animals and plants now listed as threatened.
Sea Country aims to document the vital ocean and land conservation efforts led by an Indigenous ranger group, the Gamay Rangers, around Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Botany Bay (Gamay) is known as the industrial centre of Sydney. The industrial hub is right next to the last remaining patch of mangroves and seagrass habitat in the Gamay region. The area is abundant with native fauna and flora, with many species found no where else in the world. This region is at risk due to industrialisation, pollution, and climate change. The project will focus on two key areas of ocean and land conservation: the restoration of seagrass habitat around Gamay Bay and the protection of Towra Point Nature Reserve.
The Gamay Rangers are the first permanent urban Indigenous Ranger group in Australia, and they lead the conservation efforts in this area. By showcasing their work, I hope to demonstrate how Indigenous Knowledge Systems can help to mitigate the devastating effects of environmental change in the ocean and land. Through my project, I aim to raise awareness about the importance of recognising and promoting Indigenous Knowledge Systems in conservation and highlight the Gamay Ranger's invaluable input in helping to slow the decline of the extraordinary evolutionary diversity in Australia.
Gamay Story Features:
Wilderness Journal: A Gamay Story
Robert Cooley, a saltwater man with connections to Gamay (Botany Bay) and the NSW South Coast, takes us on a personal journey through his life. It was on the shoreline of Gamay that his father taught him how to fish and forage for food in the traditional way, just as his ancestors have done for generations. Now, as a senior ranger with the Gamay Rangers, Robert is passing on his unique cultural knowledge of the land and sea to younger generations, so they too can care for Country and the community.
“It’s all about living off the ocean,” said Robert Cooley, a lifelong spearfisherman and the leader of the Gamay Rangers, an Aboriginal group that helps manage and protect Botany Bay on Sydney’s southern edge. “It’s a catch-your-breath type of thing, far away from the big city.”
Mr. Cooley, 53, tall, talkative and full of local lore, said his team of a half-dozen rangers had already put their spearfishing skills to good use. During Sydney’s peak lockdown period in April, their underwater hunting became community service. Between fish, lobsters and abalone, they caught 3,000 meals to distribute to neighbors in need.
A Gamay Story featured in Wilderness Journal
Gamay Region
The below maps display the key habitat features of the Gamay region, as well as government cultural data and current aquatic reserves. The Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIM) data points have been left uncategorised due to cultural sensitivity and respect for sovereignty.
Scenario 1 (left) : Conventional ecological conservation planning scenario
This scenario used socioecological data typically found in top-down approaches to conservation planning
Scenario 3 (right) : Adding Gamay priorities (Gamay Eco-cultural design)
This scenario used socioecological data and secondary data from the NSW government AHIMS cultural data as well as Gamay Rangers cultural data and priorities
Conclusion:
“Indigenous people have managed coastal and marine environments sustainably prior to colonisation. Presently, Coastal Indigenous communities are still trying to reclaim their rights obligations to manage Sea Country. There is an urgency for Coastal Indigenous peoples to manage their Country, as current policies do not reflect cultural importance or Indigenous ways of doing. This study demonstrated that there is a difference in management priorities between conventional planning approaches and the Gamay Rangers. The Gamay Rangers were explicit that their cultural management concerns were not catered for within current coastal and marine management policy. It successfully highlights the increasing need to meaningfully included Indigenous peoples in coastal and marine management.” - Kataya Barrett - Cross-cultural Approach to Coastal and Marine Protected Area Design in south-eastern Sydney
The Gamay Ranger's environmental, cultural and restoration efforts ensure the habitat can sustain diverse vegetation that supports the ecosystem and its complex food web. What sets this project apart from others is its focus on the critical role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in conservation. In Indigenous culture, land and water are not viewed as separate. By showcasing the Gamay Ranger's work, Sea Country demonstrates how holistic traditional ecological knowledge can help mitigate the devastating effects of environmental change on land and sea.
Focus region | Ocean | Seagrass meadows
“Scientists have discovered the world’s largest plant—a seagrass in Australia that grew more than 70 square miles by repeatedly cloning itself. The plant, called Poseidon's ribbon weed or Posidonia australis, is about 4,500 years old, according to a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.” Reference Smithsonian Magazine
Posidonia australis in the Gamay region has been formally listed as endangered by both the Australian Commonwealth Government (EPBC Act) and the New South Wales government. Posidonia australis is extremely slow to regenerate, taking up to 50 years to regrow a 1m2 area. There’s a very real risk that this species may become locally extinct from some of these estuaries within the next 15 years unless new conservation actions reverse current trends.
Focus region | Land | Towra Point Nature Reserve
Eastern curlews Towra Point Nature Reserve September, 2021. Photo credit: Dave Robson
Towra Point Nature Reserve contains the largest wetland of its kind in the greater Sydney area and showcases vegetation types that have become scarce in the region. The reserve harbors 60% of the saltmarsh communities and 40% of the mangrove communities found in the Sydney region, along with a significant seagrass area adjacent to the wetland. The diverse array of vegetation fosters numerous biological interactions and a complex food web, providing habitat for four nationally threatened species, as well as 24 threatened species and five endangered ecological communities safeguarded under NSW legislation.
Towra Point serves as a critical roosting and feeding site for large numbers of migratory shorebird species, while also functioning as a significant nesting location for the endangered little tern (Sterna albifrons). Furthermore, the mangroves and seagrass in the area offer shelter and sustenance for juvenile fish species, and the release of crab larvae during spring ebb tides from saltmarsh zones provides a dependable source of nourishment for various fish species, serving as a crucial link in the estuary's food web. The reserve plays a pivotal role in ecological connectivity for roaming species, and its preservation is vital for maintaining biodiversity throughout the greater Sydney region. Source: NSW Government
The Gamay Ranger's environmental, cultural and restoration efforts ensure the habitat can sustain diverse vegetation that supports the ecosystem and its complex food web.
History of the Gamay Region
This project has cultural and social relevance because Gamay was the site of the first contact in 1770 between the Indigenous Australians and Europeans. It highlights the invaluable contribution of Indigenous communities to conservation in Australias biggest city, an area that has been dominated by Western scientific approaches after colonisation. In August of 2022, the Gamay Rangers have been officially appointed as honorary National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers. It's the first time an Aboriginal ranger organisation will work alongside National Parks and Wildlife Services as an equal partner in managing a reserve in New South Wales.
Image source: National Museum Australia
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