NAIDOC Week Yarning Circle, 2025
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff (Bruce Hammond, Tiahni Adamson and John Pender) yarn about this year's NAIDOC theme: 'The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy'.
Climate change is no longer a future threat – it is a present reality, with widespread and severe impacts being felt across Country.
“We need to talk with the Traditional Custodians because they’ve been managing Country for a really long time,” says Jo Griffin, Olkola woman and Healthy Country Planner, who is working on an inclusive project to centre First Nations perspectives in conversations about land management responses to climate change.
This project builds on previous work gathering and analysing knowledge from expert sources including CSIRO, the Traditional Custodians with whom Bush Heritage has long-standing partnerships, and other scientists to understand the likely vulnerabilities and opportunities under climate change. The Developing a Culturally Relevant Framework for Climate Adaptation and Resilient Landscapes project exemplifies our commitment to right-way science: acknowledging Traditional Custodian’s deep connection to and understanding of our landscapes, and the solutions that emerge for healthy Country when this knowledge walks side by side with Western science.
The project involves three phases.
The first is engagement with interested Traditional Custodian groups who have identified the risk of climate change on their Country – listening to their perspectives, sharing our work and prioritising threats most in need of solutions.
Next, is a series of Eco-thons: multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural workshops to develop possible strategies to respond, or proactively prevent the worst-case outcomes of these issues.
Finally, the outputs of the Eco-thons will be peer reviewed by Traditional Custodians and other experts to further refine, prioritise and design solutions – focusing on avoiding as many perverse impacts on ecology and culture as possible.
“We want to take our time and get things right,” says Jo. “It has taken us two years to build our own knowledge bank on climate change’s impacts. Over the last 12 months, we have been focused on establishing the project, employing the right team, building relationships and communicating the project intent with Traditional Custodians and other stakeholders. Now, we are ready to bring this knowledge together.”
We gratefully acknowledge support from The Angles Family Foundation and the Federal Government’s National Environmental Science Program’s Resilient Landscapes Hub for their joint funding of the project.
The article is published in our Impact Report 2024-25, which celebrates the achievements made for nature in the previous financial year.
