Dr Dermot SmythResearch Institute for the Environment and

Livelihoods Charles Darwin University

Niche Messages1. What is a propitious niche?

• How does it apply to Caring for Country?

2. Evolution of the Caring for Country niche

3. Breaking Barriers: Re-thinking Caring for Country as “Cultural

Selection”

Peter Ucko Neville Bonner

Encountering the “Propitious Niche”“Closing The Gap” Workshop

late 1970s

What is a Propitious Niche?

“Propitious”Attended by favourable circumstances

“Niche”A position particularly adapted to its

occupant(and vice versa)

Propitious niches in America

IroquoisSteel workers In New York Irish Police in

New YorkAfrican American soldiers

Indigenous propitious niches in Australia

What makes a niche propitious?Applies existing skills, knowledge or interests

Valued by minority group and wider society

Limited competition from wider society

Entry point into wider employment opportunitiesAn opportunity pathwayNot a limited destiny

What is Caring for Country?

Fire management Weed control Feral animal control

Satellite trackingResearch

Cultural heritage management

Caring for Country as a propitious niche• Applies inherent skills and cultural knowledge

• Highly valued by Indigenous communities

• Highly valued by wider society

• Limited competition from wider society

• Potential for subsequent employment opportunities

Evolution of Caring for Country Niche

Based on ancient and enduring responsibility for country

Evolution of Caring for Country Niche

Land Rights – 1976 onwards

Evolution of Caring for Country Niche

Co-management of national parks from 1979 onwards

Evolution of Caring for Country Niche

Palm Island Ranger Service 1983

Kowanyama – Western Cape York1989 Ranger employed1990 Land & Natural Resource Management OfficeIndependent cultural evolution?

Colin Lawrence

Cape York Community Rangers from early ‘90sSupported by ATSIC and Cairns TAFE CollegeWhere were the research institutions?

Study tour of Northern Territoryearly 1990s

Coastal Ranger Groups across northern Australia www.nailsma.org.au/projects/srm

Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) from 1998Voluntary protected areas

Declared by Traditional Owners

Recognised nationally and internationally

Supported by IPA Program and other partners

Initially based on Indigenous tenure

Increasingly based on “country” (land and sea)Comprise over 40% of Australia’s protected area

estate

Working on Country Program

From 2008Funding for Indigenous Ranger employmentCurrently over 630 Ranger employedOver $320 million for 5 years from 2013Commitment to fund 730 Rangers by 2015

Ongoing Indigenous Drivers

Traditional OwnersCommunity CouncilsLand Councils and other regional

organisationsTorres Strait Regional AuthorityNorth Australian Indigenous Land and Sea

Management Alliance (NAILSMA)Environment Minister’s

Indigenous Advisory Committee

Other investors

Fee-for-Service contractsConservation NGOsPhilanthropicsResearch institutions

The Caring for Country ‘Industry’ today60 Indigenous Protected Areas

Over 1,000 Indigenous rangers and other Caring for Country workers employed

Total investment $100 million per year?

Remote Community Case Study

Indigenous-owned resort

LocalIndigenous

employment:

Multi-national mine

LocalIndigenous

employment:

Indigenous Land and Sea Management

Group

Local Indigenous

employment:

0% 5% 90%

Benefits of Caring for CountryEmployment

Education and Training

Enhanced self esteem, health and wellbeing

Contribution to biodiversity conservation

Contribution to cultural maintenance

Reconciliation and partnership building

Policy & Research ImplicationsOngoing support for locally driven, well

coordinated, purposeful Caring for Country programs

Support for other propitious nichesWhat are they?Where are they?Why are they propitious?

Contribution to understanding “The Gap”?Indigenous RangersNon-Indigenous Coordinators

What’s Going On?

Country Tenure

IndigenousKnowledge

Western Science

HolisticLand/SeaManagement

SeparateLand/SeaManagement

Caring for Country Contemporary value Selective advantage

Encountering Cultural Selection

Agner Fog “Cultural Selection”

Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

2009

What is Cultural Selection?Analogous to Natural SelectionNot related to Social Darwinism!

“Memes” and “Meme complexes” TransmittedChange (mutate)Selectively advantageousSelectively disadvantageous

Cultural adaptation and evolution

How does this help?

A framework for understanding cultural change?

Incentive to seek selective advantages for cultural values?

Hasten supportive policy development and research?

Tenure-based IPA

(ExclusiveTenureunlikely)

Aboriginal land

National Park

ForestReserve

MarinePark

Private Land

IPA

Land Sea

Land Sea

Country-based IPA

(Exclusivetenureunlikely)

Aboriginal land

National Park

ForestReserve

MarinePark

Private Land

Land Sea

Land Sea

Country-based IPA

Land Sea

Country-based IPAIntegrated land and sea country IPA