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Addressing Indigenous Management Issues

Note: Some of the material contained in this chapter is out of date and currently under review (1/7/2004)

Addressing Indigenous Management Issues

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) supports traditional use of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) and recognises its important role within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tradition and custom.  The GBRMPA understands the need to actively engage with Traditional Owners to develop effective cooperative management arrangements for a range of marine park issues.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 1983 and zoning plans provide for traditional use of the GBRMP to continue. Zoning provisions provide for ‘as of right’ access in most circumstances, and for permits to be obtained where the Traditional activity involves hunting, fishing or gathering in zones where those activities would not generally be allowed.  Regulations also require the GBRMPA to address the need to protect the cultural and heritage values held in relation to the GBRMP by traditional inhabitants.

In 1994, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 was amended to include a fourth member on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, being a “member appointed to represent the interests of Aboriginal communities adjacent to the Marine Park. Dr. Evelyn Scott, the former Chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation has held that position since its creation.

The Indigenous Policy and Liaison Unit (IPLU) at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority commenced operating in 1995. The unit provides a cultural policy advisory service to the Authority as well as being the vital link to engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in present and future management arrangements.

The Great Barrier Reef 25 Year Strategic Plan details a vision for the future of:

 …a community which recognises the interests of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders so that they can pursue their own lifestyle and culture, and exercise responsibility for issues, areas of land and sea, and resources relevant to their heritage within the bounds of ecologically sustainable use…

Management initiatives and Co-Management

In 1997, the Hopevale Community, north of Cooktown, began work on a Turtle and Dugong Hunting Management Plan (Hopevale Aboriginal Council and Nursey-Bray 1999). The Plan is designed to ensure that the harvest of green turtles and dugongs is maintained at a sustainable and culturally appropriate level. In 2000 this plan was launched and Hopevale received the Prime Minister’s Environment Award for Community Leadership for its  “Guugu Yimmithirr Bama Wii: Turtle and Dugong Hunting Management Plan.”

In 2001, the GBRMPA started in initiative of working with Traditional Owner groups for traditional reef names. The name “Bandjin Reef” represents the Traditional Owners who maintain strong connections to the Hinchinbrook marine region. IPLU  were involved in the historic negotiations between the local traditional owner group, community, State, and Federal Governments in relation to the naming of this group of eight reefs situated off Cardwell.

Co-management presents opportunities for combining and respecting Indigenous property rights and responsibilities in environmental management. Essentially co-management arrangements are negotiated among the stakeholders – hopefully to mutual satisfaction – so that arrangements can be customised to each circumstance (George, Innes and Ross 2003).

Traditional Owners from all areas of the Great Barrier Reef are working with marine management agencies to develop a range of cooperative management outcomes. These outcomes will, result in a more holistic approach towards the future management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Indigenous cooperative management of the Great Barrier Reef has been progressed as a reef-wide initiative since 1999. The initiative stems from two sources:

  • calls from Indigenous groups for meaningful roles in the management of the Great Barrier Reef; and secondly
  • from decisions by the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council. In July 1999, the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council requested the preparation of a costed, multi-agency strategy for developing cooperative management with Indigenous people for the Great Barrier Reef.

Sea Forum, a collective of Aboriginal Traditional Owners from the Southern Great Barrier Reef (from Cooktown south), presented to Government in 1999 a discussion paper outlining ways forward for co-management (Sea Forum 1999).

The impetus of the Sea Forum discussion paper and the Ministerial Council Decisions led to the formation of a Senior Officials Working Group to address the issue of Indigenous co-management in the GBRMP. The Working Group comprised senior officers from the GBRMPA, Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development.

The Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council considered proposals put to it by the Senior Officials Working for Indigenous cooperative management strategies in June 2001. The Ministerial Council subsequently directed GBRMPA to provide a report to it on how to get more Indigenous community rangers into the field; and how to develop appropriate cooperative management arrangements with Indigenous communities to address the conservation of turtles and dugongs.

To address this Ministerial direction, a new system for managing traditional use of marine resources in the GBRMP is being proposed. This system will be implemented through the review of zoning plans being undertaken in conjunction with the Representative Areas Program. It is proposed that the basis for this management system will be the development of A Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreement (TUMRA). These TUMRA’s will be formal agreements with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Owner groups who assert rights and interests in an area of the GBRMP.

A feature of the TUMRA’s is that they will provide a process for building an accredited agreement for a range of Marine Park management issues that the Traditional Owner group will be able to be involved in managing. Theses issues would include such topics as threatened species conservation in a specified area, traditional fishing in high conservation zones, administrative processes for permits or future act notices and management planning based on cultural and heritage values.

Communication Processes and Cross-Cultural Education

Cross-cultural education provides an excellent opportunity to learn about Aboriginal cultures.

Due to the distribution of the region’s Indigenous population and the remote nature of some of the communities, an effective communication strategy is critical to GBRMPA working with Indigenous peoples. Initiatives include:

  • the development of an interactive Indigenous reef website called reeftribes. The website will provide information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Owner groups by providing web pages based on the theme of ‘past, present and future’ reef culture and cooperative management relationships and;
  • the Sea Country Newsletter which is produced by the GBRMPA. This is an important communication tool used to inform Indigenous communities about the Authority’s programs. Sea Country was originally distributed to communities on Cape York Peninsula focusing on the rezoning of the Far Northern Section rezoning program. The newsletter now has a broader distribution to reef wide Indigenous communities with major emphasis on the Representative Areas Program and other management issues.

As part of GBRMPA’s cross cultural education program, a cultural education camp to Goold Island was organised for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and GBRMPA staff in 2002. The Girringun Elders and Reference group at Cardwell were contracted to provide the cultural learning outcomes as well as the camp logistics with the assistance of the QPWS vessels. The camp provided excellent opportunities for sharing and understanding Aboriginal cultures, traditional rights and interests in the Marine Park and how to facilitate the development of better working relationships in the future.

Summary:

  • Indigenous natural resource use and management along the Marine Park is diverse and ranges from Traditional Owner groups asserting their Native Title rights and interests to Indigenous policy development through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
  • The last five years has seen the GBRMPA move from working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Councils and Corporations to developing working arrangements with Traditional Owner groups based on a Native Title legislative framework.
  • This period saw a strong push from Native Title Representative Bodies, the Sea Forum, and the Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council towards developing cooperative management arrangements with Traditional Owner groups. 
  • The GBRMPA is taking the initiative of developing a legislative base for cooperative management agreements for traditional and cultural marine park use through the Representative Areas Program. The past five years has also seen strong support for cross cultural education programs covering a wide range of Indigenous Marine Park issues.
  • The development of Traditional Use of Marine Resource Agreements in tune with biodiversity conservation principles and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maritime culture will provide the GBRMPA, Traditional Owners and the diverse range of stakeholder groups, with a sound basis for moving forward into partnerships and developing cooperative Marine Park management arrangements in the future.

Further reading

Cultural heritage and history

General Information

Partnerships, policy and government

Research publications about the Great Barrier Reef are also available at:

Bibliography

Benzaken, D., Smith, G., and Williams, R. 1997, 'A long way together: the recognition of indigenous interests in the management of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area', in State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Workshop: proceedings of a technical workshop held in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 27-29 November 1995, eds D. Wachenfeld, J. Oliver and K. Davis, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, pp. 471-495.

Breslin, B. 1992, Exterminate with pride: Aboriginal-European relations in the Townsville-Bowen region to 1869, Department of History & Politics, James Cook University, Townsville.

Chase, A. 1980, 'Which way now? Tradition, continuity and change in a North Queensland Aboriginal community', PhD thesis, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Queensland, St Lucia.

Gray, F. and Zann, L.P. (eds) 1988, Traditional knowledge of the marine environment in Northern Australia: proceedings of a workshop held in Townsville, Australia, 29 and 30 July, 1985, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville.

George, M., Innes, J., and Ross, H. in press, Managing sea country together: key issues for developing co-operative management for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, CRC Reef Research Centre Technical Report, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd., Townsville.

Hopley, D. 1982, The geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: quaternary development of coral reefs, Wiley, New York.

Hopevale Aboriginal Council and Nursey-Bray, M. 1999, A guugu yimmithirr bama wi: ngawiya and girrbithi (Turtle and dugong hunting management plan),Cape York Land Council, Cairns.

Limpus, C. J., Miller, J. D., Limpus, D. J., and Hamann, M. 2000, 'The Raine Island green turtle rookery: Y2K update', in Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, comps A. Mosier, A. Foley and B. Brost, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Miami, pp. 132-134, viewed 25 June 2003, http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/readingrm/turtlesymp/20turtle.pdf

Marsh, H., De-ath, G., Gribble, N. and Lane, B. 2001, Shark control records hindcast serious decline in dugong numbers off the urban coast of Queensland, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Research Publication no. 70, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, pp. 1-24, viewed 24 June 2003, http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/info_services/publications/research_publications/rp070/index.html

Marsh, H. and Lawler, I. 2002, Dugong distribution and abundance in the northern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, November 2000, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Research Publication no. 77, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, viewed 24 June 2003, http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/3027/rp77-final.pdf

Sea Forum 1999, Aboriginal involvement in management of the Southern Great Barrier Reef: discussion paper, Sea Forum, Rockhampton, viewed 25 June 2002, http://www.seaforum.org/documents/Discussion_paper/Discussion_paper_draft.htm

Smith, A. 1989, Usage of marine resources by Aboriginal communities on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville.

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