Aboriginal people caring for country: good for all of us

Dr Jocelyn DaviesCSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Alice Springs

Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre

12 September 2008Livelihoods inLand™ research

www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au

Critical understandings from land management systems for ‘closing

the gap’ in desert Australia

Dr Jocelyn DaviesCSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Alice Springs

Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre

12 September 2008 Livelihoods inLand™ research

www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au

Aboriginal land management – desert Australia

• Uniquely placed for sustainable livelihood outcomes (health, well being, income)

• Smaller settlements have a key role• Cultural motivations are foundational • Public investment is important to enterprise

viability – ‘social enterprise’• Planning needs to join up land management,

health, education and arts

Complementary benefits from Aboriginal land management

• Health and well being of Aboriginal people• Bush food production, including commercial• Cultural heritage, contributing to:

– national cultural life of Australia, – local and export income through tourism and art

• Biodiversity conservation, including the protection of threatened species

• Greenhouse gas mitigation, carbon sequestration.

Closing the gap needs systems thinking

BUDGET 08BUILDING BLOCKS

FOR CLOSING THE GAP

ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

SAFE COMMUNITIES

HEALTH

EARLY CHILDHOOD

GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIPSCHOOLING

HEALTHY HOMES

Engaging land management to close the gap

Land management

Caring for countryWorking on country

ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

SAFE COMMUNITIES

HEALTH

EARLY CHILDHOOD

GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIPSCHOOLING

HEALTHY HOMES

WHO framework for social determinants of health

WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, final report August 2008

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

UK -Gla

sgow

, poo

rIn

dia

USA - Blac

k, po

or

Phillip

ines

Lithu

ania

Poland

Mex

ico

USA - av

erag

eCub

a

UK- ave

rage

Japa

n

Icelan

d

USA - W

hite,

afflu

ent

UK -Gla

sgow

, afflu

ent

Country/locality

Lif

e e

xp

ec

tan

cy

(y

ea

rs)

*

**

** *

Health follows a social gradient

WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, final report August 2008

Occupational class differences in life expectancy, England and Wales 1997-9

6466687072747678808284

Profe

ssion

al

Man

ager

ial &

tech

nical

Skille

d non

-man

ual

Skille

d m

anual

Partly

skil

led

man

ual

Unskil

led

Occupation category

Lif

e ex

pec

tan

cy (

year

s)

Men

Women

Health gradient in work roles

Wilkinson & Marmot. 2003 Social determinants of health, WHO Europe 2nd Ed

Pho

to:

Ear

thbo

und

Con

sulta

nts

Strong languages in desert Australia

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Pau

l Has

tings

Aboriginal population and settlement pattern

Control at work & heart disease

Ferrie (ed) 2004. Work, stress and health. Whitehall II study,CCSU/Cabinet Office, London

CLIMATE VARIABILITYVariability & extremeness

In primary drivers(Rainfall, other weather)

SCARCE RESOURCESWidespread low soil fertility& patchy natural resources

SPARSE POPULATIONSparse, mobile & patchy

Human population

SOCIAL VARIABILITYUnpredictability in, or lack

of control over markets, labour, policy

LOCAL KNOWLEDGELimited research,

local/traditional knowledge relatively important

CULTURAL DIFFERENCESParticular types of people,

cultures & institutions

Stafford Smith, Mar 2008 Rangeland Journal, Vol 30

REMOTENESSDistant markets, business

education & political centres

CLIMATE VARIABILITYVariability & extremeness

In primary drivers(Rainfall, other weather)

SCARCE RESOURCESWidespread low soil fertility& patchy natural resources

SPARSE POPULATIONSparse, mobile & patchy

Human population

SOCIAL VARIABILITYUnpredictability in, or lack

of control over markets, labour, policy

LOCAL KNOWLEDGELimited research,

local/traditional knowledge relatively important

CULTURAL DIFFERENCESParticular types of people,

cultures & institutions

Stafford Smith 2008 Rangeland Journal Vol 30

REMOTENESSDistant markets, business

education & political centres

Land (‘country’) is central to Aboriginal world views,

livelihood assets & outcomes

“Country and people and land and health and [customary] Law cannot be separated. They are all one.” (Atkinson 2002)Land

Law

Language

Kinship Ceremony

Plants & Animals

MK Turner: “Everything Comes from the Land” IAD Press

SEE ALSO: Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008. Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri people, DKCRC Report 41. Desert Knowledge CRC, Alice Springs.

Remote regions with strong Aboriginal property rights

Very poor Aboriginal health & well being

• Aboriginal life expectancy (national): 17-18 years less than national average

Rangeland Australia: • Aboriginal mortality rate: 3 x national average• Aboriginal incidence End Stage Renal Disease:

30 x national average• Aboriginal incomes: 25% non-Aboriginal incomes

Community wellbeing?• Serious interlinked social issues including alcoholism,

domestic violence, child abuse, low literacySocial opportunity cost• $1.5 billion p.a. or $27,000 p.a. per Aboriginal person,

in one jurisdiction

Explaining the paradox of remote Australia: strong Aboriginal property rights but poor

Aboriginal health & wellbeing• State transition in the social-ecological system

(land degradation, and loss of traditional knowledge and know-how).

• Barriers to accessing traditional lands for ‘caring for country’: poor health & social dysfunction, distance, poverty, reliance on larger centralised settlements for health & education services.

• Lack of a systems understanding: not accounting for interrelationships between sectors

Relationship between ‘caring for country’ & chronic disease

• Building on previous research (health benefits of traditional diet, better health at smaller settlements)

• Adult health checks of a representative sample (c300) in a northern Australian settlement + triangulated self-assessment of the time the people sampled spend in caring for country activities (living at outstation, hunting, art, ceremony).

• Correlations between time on country and markers for three chronic disease conditions, some pre-symptomatic

• Estimated probable change in severity for chronic disease conditions per unit increase in engagement in ‘caring for country’:

• Analysed primary health care costs• Concluded there are significant economic efficiencies for securing improved

health outcomes if engagement in land management is increased, even by a relatively small amount.

• Now analysing generalisabity of these findings, inc in desert areas

(Campbell et al in prep; Burgess et al in prep and see Garnett, S and Sithole B 2007, Sustainable Northern Landscapes and the Nexus with Indigenous Health: Healthy Country Healthy people. Land and Water Australia, Canberra;)

Engagement in land management and chronic disease risk.

Chr

onic

dis

ease

ris

k

Control over life (self assessed) through engagement in land management

HYPOTHETICAL

WHO framework for social determinants of health

WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, final report August 2008

More Activity

More Art

ImprovedHealth

Caring for country

Activities & Projects

Agency Assets

More Food Harvested

HigherIncome

MoreSpecies

StrongerKnowledge

NewSkills

LocalAssets

OtherWork

ParticipantMotivation

Understanding ‘caring for country’ as a social – ecological system

EducatedYouth

Youth knowledge of country is a key variable

Shane Jupurrula White recording knowledge of his responsibilities from elders

“The old words tell us where we come from”Shane Jupurrula White

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Mic

hael

LaF

lam

me

Youth Knowledge

Increasing Knowledge per Year

Total Country Visits

Visits per Year

Knowlege per Person Visit

Agency Planned Visits

Year

Visits per Family

Comm Planned Visits

Year

Science Knowledge

Elder Knowledge

~Knowlege

Valued

Probability of Being in Town

Youth Visits

Number of Elders

Decaying Knowledge per Year

Knowledge per Elder Number of Youth Other

Activities

Probability of Choosing Country Visit

~Knowledge

Valued

Agency Capacity

Family Capacity

Staff Turnover

Rate

Rate of Elder

Sharing

Youth Knowledge

Visits per 000

Dollars per Year

Families per year

Elder Loss Rate

Number of Scientists Knowledge

per Scientist

Rate of Scientist Sharing

Maximum Sharing Rate

Number of Youth per Visit

~

Knowledge Loss Rate

~

Retention Rate

Modellingoptimal rates

youth engagement with elders & country

Improved nutrition

Shop food match to

bush food seasons

Seasonal changes learned

More physical activity

Better fitnessObservations

named, shared in local language and

English

Recording information:

GIS & multimedia

Technacy, literacy & numeracy

Country-based

learning

Natural resource

management contracts

Country visits

++YOUTH YOUTH

KNOWLEDGEKNOWLEDGE

++PHYSICAL PHYSICAL HEALTHHEALTH

__TIME SPENT TIME SPENT

ON COUNTRYON COUNTRY

More income

More job opportunities

More other opportunities

Systemic impacts from youth

engagement with elders & country

Troubled questions….• What do Aboriginal people actually do in land management?• Do we (society) really need that?• Where is income going to come from?• And isn’t education – literacy, numeracy - actually very

important? • Does everyone out bush actually want to do land

management?• What about all the other jobs that need to be done in remote

settlements?• Who is going to pay for it? • And how does it get organised?

Pho

to:

Luca

s Jo

rdan

Pho

to: K

aris

sa P

reus

s

Pho

to: K

aris

sa P

reus

s

Do NRM programs follow principles of customary Law?

“The IPA needs to not be afraid of being adopted by Ngurra-kurlu”

Steven Jampijinpa Patrick, Lajamanu

Signing North Tanami IPA Agreement

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pictures – caring for country

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to: J

ane

Wal

ker

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Kar

issa

Pre

uss

Pho

to:

Josi

e D

ougl

as

www.schools.nt.edu.au/tlcland

Track based monitoring

track plots + experienced trackers = meaningful data

Southgate and Moseby. 2008 Track based monitoring for the deserts and rangelands of Australia. NHT funded, Report to WWF, TSN.

School DustWatch

School DustWatchwww.school.dustwatch.edu.au

State/Territory NRM responsibilities(Contracted/facilitated)

Other research and monitoring

AREAThreat-ened species

WaterPark mgt

Pastoral land conditionmonitoring

Feral animals, weeds

Wind erosion

Bio-security

Climatechange

A ** * *

B ** * ** * *

C ** ** * * *

D * * * *

E * * * * *

Potential public sector demand, given capacity

Private sector(Marketable, based on outcomes)

Labour or outcome-based contracts

AREA

Burning- Green-house Gas mitigation, Carbon offsets

Feral animals

Fencing BurningWeed control

A * *

B ** ** * *

C * * *

D * * *

E * * *

Potential private sector demand, given capacity

PRIVATE NET BENEFIT

_ +

_

+ 2

3A4

PU

BL

IC N

ET

BE

NE

FIT

Positiveincentives

Negativeincentives

1A

0

Application of the cost-effectiveness plane in joint production of health and environmental

services

3B

No policy action

1B:

Campbell, Davies & Wakerman. 2007. Desert Knowledge CRC, Working Paper #11; and forthcoming in Rural & Remote Health Online Journal

Principles for land management to produce health & wellbeing outcomes,

covering…

• Authority structures accountable to customary governance of land

• Intergenerational learning• Partnerships for two-way learning about

environmental change• Management approaches that promote social

learning and account for community and investor aspirations

Planning for cross-sectoral outcomes for local people and

investors

Land Law Language Ceremony Kinship

Human Land management knowledge, skills

NRM guided by customary law

Fluency, literacy in languages

Youth become responsible adults

Skills to keep family healthy

Social Families actively caring for land

Law taught and learned

Languages taught in school

All families keep ceremonies alive

All kin groups teach in school

Financial Income from land -based enterprise

Money shared in a proper way

Elders paid for shared knowledge

Payment for cultural services

Family-based enterprises

Physical Roads built to important places

‘Tools’ to meet responsibilities

Stories and photos archived

Transport for country visits

Well-maintained family outstations

Natural Productivity of plants and animals

Important places properly cared for

Proper names of plants, animals

Increases in plants, animals

Regular family country visits

Examples of outcomes

Aboriginal land management – desert Australia

• Uniquely placed for sustainable livelihood outcomes (health, well being, income)

• Smaller settlements have a key role• Cultural motivations are foundational • Public investment is important to enterprise

viability – ‘social enterprise’• Planning needs to join up land management,

health, education and arts

ThankyouCollaborating & support organisations:• CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems• Centre for Remote Health• Charles Darwin University • Northern Territory Government• Central Land Council• Community members and staff: Lajamanu, Yuendumu, Anmatjere, Wilowra, Ntaria, Nepabunna,

Hay • Warlpiri Media• Australian Government Department of the Water, Environment, Heritage and the Arts• Australian National University• Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation• Land and Water Australia

Collaborating researchers including: • David Campbell, Paul Burgess, Stephen Garnett, John Wakerman, Michael LaFlamme, Jane

Walker, Karissa Preuss, Josie Douglas, Fiona Walsh, Miles Holmes, Steven Jampijinpa Patrick., Lance Box,.

Photos: Earthbound consultants, Karissa Preuss, Paul Hastings, Michael LaFlamme, Jocelyn Davies, Josie Douglas, Lucas Jordan, Jane Walker

This research is supported by funding from the Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre Program through the Desert Knowledge CRC; the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of Desert Knowledge CRC or its Participants.