Crawford academic to use ARC fellowship to support Indigenous community based researchers

ASRAC rangers and Traditional Owners at Murwangi, Arafura Swamp

Dr Simon West will use his ARC Early Career Industry Fellowship to work himself out of a job, and he’s thrilled about it. 

He will be working with Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation (ASRAC) and Bush Heritage Australia to support ASRAC’s work on cultural mapping and strengthening Indigenous rules, protocols and practices for the use of cultural knowledge. Working under Dr Otto Campion, Senior Ranger and Balbara Manager at ASRAC, and Yolŋu and Bi knowledge authorities, he will also support nine of the rangers to become certified as Indigenous Community Based Researchers to continue the work into the future.

The Arafura Swamp, known to Yolŋu and Bi Traditional Owners as Gurruwiling, is in north-east Arnhem Land and contains some of the Northern Territory’s richest and most extensive paperbark forests. The Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation (ASRAC) consists of eight ranger groups who speak multiple local languages, including Djinaŋ, Ritharrŋu, Djinba, Djambarrpuyŋu, Ganalbiŋu, Rembarrŋa and Mandhalpuyŋu as well as English, and look after Country for which they have traditional responsibility but also work cooperatively to plan management activities. The area shares an unbroken history of Aboriginal ownership and management.

“Socially, culturally and environmentally, the Arafura Swamp is just such an incredible place.” - Dr Simon West

Simon began working with ASRAC and Bush Heritage Australia when he first visited the Northern Territory in 2018. Through this relationship he’s supported ASRAC in their development of a Yolŋu and Bi monitoring and evaluation system and planning for their cultural mapping work.

The ARC funding will allow the team to reach remote parts of Arafura Swamp via helicopter and will support clans to document place names and sacred sites, renewing knowledge across generations. Currently, the maps used by ASRAC are “maps that have English names, not the proper names for each place,” he explains.

A key element of the fellowship is also protecting the data that is gathered. Members of each clan will work to digitally record place names and stories as another way of keeping each clan's history alive. Simon will support the development of a platform to store the information under the supervision of ASRAC to ensure traditional ownership is maintained, where each clan will then have control and dedicated access to their information, allowing clan authorities to decide how and when information is shared more widely.

Map of ASRAC’s area of operations in Gurruwiling (Arafura Swamp). Source: ASRAC.

It is clear when talking to Simon about Arafura Swamp, despite him coming from Bristol in the UK, that he feels real connection to place, Country, and the people.

“These cultural aspects that we're dealing with in the project are very important and come with a big responsibility. So, there has to be a close level of trust and accountability, especially me being a non-Indigenous partner.

That trust will only grow as he spends six months of the year over the next three years in north-east Arnhem Land with his family, including his three young children. “My son was born in the NT, and he's particularly excited to go back, especially to catch up with friends and see the crocodiles,” he said.

Simon also credits Crawford with the successful application. He said that the workshops by the research director at the time Professor Sango Mahanty as well as talks by other successful grant recipients helped to shape the project and pitching it, and the College of Asia and Pacific research office helped with the budget. He said without their support, this project wouldn’t have happened.

Overall, he sees the ARC fellowship as a way to support ASRAC’s ongoing work with Traditional Owners rather than lead the research himself. This means that when the project is completed, the rangers, also recognised as Indigenous Community Based Researchers, will continue the work. "That's what should be happening. That's going to be wonderful,” he says.

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