Learning from Indigenous and traditional community knowledge

This project addresses the question: how research based on the deep knowledge of country can inform an understanding of the competing demands on finite and diminishing water resources to satisfy social, economic, legal, environmental and cultural outcomes in the Murray-Darling?

A major component of the project was the development of an integrated Geographical Information System (GIS) framework of the Barmah-Millewa that incorporated Yorta Yorta knowledge with conventional data such as the geographical, ecological, climatic, cultural, political, social and economic environment of the region.

With an emphasis on maintaining the traditional method of transferring the knowledge across generations, trained Yorta Yorta youth volunteers to accompany Elders to places of cultural significance in the Barmah-Millewa National Forest and record knowledge associated with these places with voice recordings, photography and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. These methodologies, chosen by and endorsed by the Yorta Yorta Elders Council, are also largely employed as community and participatory tools in Indigenous research.

Bernice Joachim, one of the volunteers, has produced a video about this unique digital story telling project, ‘From the river to the sea, and in between’. Watch the video here.

Project outputs include

Research team

The Chief Investigator for the project is Professor Dave Griggs from Monash University. Other project members include:
Dr Mark Harris, La Trobe University
Lee Joachim, Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation
Professor John Langford, Uniwater and University of Melbourne
Professor Amanda Lynch, Monash University
Dr Tahl Kestin, Monash University

Find out more about the 'Indigenous and traditional knowledge' project contact Professor Dave Griggs