Collaboration based on Indigenous leadership

Differences in the way that Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities manage natural hazards can create opportunities to build strong relationships and find mutual benefit. Bushfire and Natural Ha­­zards CRC research has identified ways to make the most of those opportunities – a process that takes recognition, respect and trust.

CRC research has investigated Indigenous-driven interests and initiatives as a foundation for building resilience and more effective relationships between communities and emergency management agencies across both northern and southern Australia.

The northern Australia work was undertaken through Charles Darwin University in collaboration with the North Australian Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), the Aboriginal Research Practitioners’ Network (ARPNet – a collective of Indigenous community researchers) and several Indigenous leaders and land managers. Through three closely related projects, researchers have successfully strengthened the collaborations between Indigenous communities and government agencies in the north, while providing evidence for the significant benefits of those collaborations for community resilience and safety in such a hazard-prone region.

Researchers for the Scenario planning for remote community risk management in northern Australia project worked with remote Indigenous communities to enhance capability to better understand emergency management processes. This work focused on Indigenous Ranger Groups across northern Australia, to understand the key issues with emergency management and to explore options through scenario planning for enhancing preparedness, response capacity and resilience. This team developed a framework and set of protocols for emergency service agencies to more effectively engage with, and provide service delivery to, remote Indigenous communities. The findings of this project are summarised in Hazard Note 94.

Another project – Northern Australian bushfire and natural hazard training – developed a training program that builds on the existing Indigenous Ranger Groups, with the added emphasis of increasing levels of competence and confidence and, in its turn, resilience. Not only is the training program now helping remote communities manage natural hazards in a way that is much more respectful of Indigenous knowledge and culture, but the development of the training program also helped to create skills and knowledge that can be shared between communities across central and western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. You can read a summary of this research in Hazard Note 96 and can access the training program here.

Another project explored governance issues and aspirations to guide future collaboration and effective management in remote northern Australia. Researchers for the Developing effective emergency management partnerships in northern Australian communities project used extensive consultations with regional emergency management agencies and Indigenous community partners to establish ongoing priorities for supporting partnerships. These priorities are based on empowerment and respect of existing governance structures in Indigenous communities, which were identified as crucial ingredients of respectful engagement.

Together, these three projects have identified the strengths and opportunities of Indigenous culture and knowledge, forming a foundation for emergency management agencies to work with communities on respectful resilience measures in the face of fires, floods, cyclones and other hazards.

Researchers for the Hazard, culture and Indigenous communities project have identified key areas for improved collaboration between Indigenous communities across southern Australia and the emergency management sector that reduce risk to natural hazards and increase social and ecological resilience. Through an investigation of the intercultural context between southern Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous emergency management agencies, this work shows that successful collaborations require leadership, trust, and support, as well as agency initiatives to account for Indigenous protocols and permissions. Researchers made recommendations that are supporting respectful relationships with Indigenous communities across southern Australia, especially regarding cultural burning in those areas. The findings of this research are summarised in this short video and in Hazard Note 101.

These projects and their tools, along with other Indigenous-led research from the CRC, are collected in the Indigenous Initiatives theme of the Driving Change resource. Projects like these are crucial in guiding future research on how to develop natural hazard programs that are inclusive of Indigenous people and communities.