dirt EDITION 1 October 2006

welcome 2

doing research the right way 3

passing muster 4

on trackTM adds value 5

learning two ways together 6

titjikala shares desert knowledge 7

keeping bush foods benefits in the desert 8

dishing the DIRT Harold Furber, Lorraine Pepperill, Denise Foster, Jan Ferguson and Vanessa Davies 8 celebrate the launch of the Town Camp Mobility Study at Tangentyere Council

traditional owners go-ahead for precinct 9 Welcome to the first edition of desert dirt. Twice a year it will update you on what we are achieving at the Desert Knowledge CRC, a virtual research new tool saves world’s topsoil 10 network linking Aboriginal and local knowledge with science and research training. describing desert diversity 10 We are launching desert dirt at the Desert Knowledge Symposium and new-look board on cultural Business Showcase in Alice Springs. Coming at the end of the International exchange 11 Year of Deserts and Desertification and ’s Year of the Outback, Global Desert Opportunities is a rare opportunity to sample the expertise farewell cuppa for tjanpi family 12 and creativity of desert regions, home to one sixth of humanity.

talking bush foods 12 In so many ways, this has been a year of new beginnings. We have refocussed our research through a new core project structure, welcomed new board members, signed on new postgraduate students and research leaders from across the nation, and developed exciting new partnerships with research, Aboriginal and business organisations. This issue will desert dirt is published by Jan Ferguson for the Desert Knowledge introduce you to some Cooperative Research Centre. of them.

It has also been a new start for me and my family, made so much easier by Publication dates: October and April Circulation: 1500 the warm reception from the desert knowledge community. Design: redDirt Graphics Printing: Colemans We look forward to producing the next issue at our new home at the Alice Springs Desert Knowledge Precinct, which we will share with our sister Contact: organisation Desert Knowledge Australia. PO Box 2111 Alice Springs NT 0871 The Desert Knowledge CRC is on the cusp of some exciting commercial 08 8950 7162 developments and we’ll bring you more about them in future editions. We [email protected] www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au hope you enjoy desert dirt.

To subscribe to printed or electronic copies of desert dirt please visit our web site, www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au. Jan Ferguson Managing Director, Desert Knowledge CRC [email protected]

  doing research the right way

Aboriginal people don’t often get to play an active role in research about their health, education, housing and employment. No wonder there has been so little progress in all those areas.

A groundbreaking population study in Alice Springs town camps has demonstrated what can be achieved when Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal researchers collaborate on equal terms, linking local knowledge with science.

The study, funded by the Desert Knowledge CRC, shows that research that is initiated and driven by those who are most affected produces more relevant data than research that is not.

Tangentyere Council, with support from the Centre Pamela and Magdaline Lynch filling in town camps for Remote Health, trained and employed town camp survey forms. residents to design and carry out four surveys of Alice Springs’ 19 town camps. They discovered that the Tangentyere Council Executive Director, William camps’ population was double what was previously Tilmouth, said he hopes the debate about town camps thought. can now be based on reliable data.

“We’ve always been aware of the mobility of people, but it has never been measured. And getting down and measuring it and finding out the nuts and bolts of it is good, because then you can put good policies on a good foundation.”

For the Desert Knowledge CRC, the study has become a model of how to do research in partnership with Aboriginal people.

With so many new research projects on the go, Aboriginal people with the right skills are in demand, as some of the Tangentyere researchers have already found out. The experience Vanessa Davies Ricky Mentha and town camp resident work on the survey. gained during the surveys has helped her find a job in eye health research, while Audrey and three of her colleagues were employed on the 2006 census. The study, which has informed recent Federal and Territory funding commitments for infrastructure and For copies of the study go to www.desertknowledgecrc. services, found that during 2004/05 up to 2,065 people com.au and follow the links to Publications. lived in town camps at any one time, more than double the 973 occupants reported in the 2002 census. During peak times, it says, the camps’ service population can potentially be as high as 3,300.

Audrey Cormack from Trucking Yards camp was one of the researchers who worked on the study. “We went out to town camps, spoke to the people, got their names, the number of visitors that were there. During any given time, there’s a change of population on any town camp. Like during the sports carnivals and the Alice Springs Show and things like that,” she said.

Audrey and her colleagues achieved a high response rate because they speak the language of town camp Vanessa Davies (left) from the Tangentyere Research Unit explains how the data was collected. Seated are residents and respect their ways of doing things. They (from left): William Tilmouth, Jan Ferguson, Alison also raised their neighbours’ understanding of research. Anderson and Harold Furber.

  passing muster

Aboriginal cattle jobs and enterprises under review

Nathan Weston musters cattle on Helen Springs station. Photo © Newspix / Peter Eve

Aboriginal pastoral employment and enterprises across Northern Australia are coming under the spotlight as part of the most thorough review of the industry ever undertaken.

Cattle for Country is a new Desert Knowledge CRC research project that brings together pastoralists, Aboriginal organisations and enterprises, government departments and industry groups all over Northern Australia.

It is the first time the cattle industry, hard hit by the national skills shortage, is funding research into Aboriginal employment initiatives.

The three year project will find out how to best strengthen Aboriginal cattle enterprises, build productive partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cattle companies and create and sustain employment and training opportunities for Aboriginal people in the industry.

Cattle for Country: 1. Indigenous Pastoral Employment Review: $50,000 each from the Meat and Livestock Association and the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) for a review of Aboriginal employment initiatives in the mainstream pastoral industry.

2. Evaluation of the Indigenous Pastoral Program (IPP): $140,000 from the ILC for an evaluation of Aboriginal pastoral enterprise types ranging from non-commercial subsistence (or ‘killer’) herds and emerging enterprises to currently operating cattle businesses. IPP partners: Central and Northern Land Councils, NT Cattlemen’s Association, NT Government and ILC.

3. We have tendered to carry out an evaluation of the Kimberley Indigenous Management Support Services (KIMSS): $100,000 from the WA Agriculture Department and the ILC.

The research is part of the Desert Knowledge CRC’s broader 21st Century Pastoralism core project, managed by Mark Ashley, which is finding research solutions for sustainable desert pastoral enterprises.

Mark says benefits from Cattle for Country will go beyond helping to create job-ready local workforces and more viable cattle businesses. It’s also about learning how the industry can best realise a range of cultural, environmental and social benefits.

“Strengthening existing initiatives will lead to improvements in the governance and business management capacity of remote communities, more collaborative management operations such as joint musters between Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal cattle enterprises, easier access to country for traditional owners through better roads and infrastructure and a healthier environment through the control of weeds, feral animals and fires.”

  Our new core project 21st Centrury PastoralismTM aims to increase the economic and social sustainability of desert pastoral enterprises.

Led by Mark Ashley, from the NT Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, the research project investigates better management structures and more profitable remote management technologies. It will develop support systems for managing market and seasonal variation and best practice Aboriginal pastoral development guidelines.

Before Mark joined the Desert Knowledge CRC he was Rangelands Management Coordinator at the Northern Land Council. He has fifteen years of experience in developing community-based land management and conservation programs, Aboriginal pastoral development programs and small scale enterprise development programs throughout the . 21st Century PastoralismTM core project leader, For more information contact [email protected] Mark Ashley http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research/pastoralism.html

TM on track adds value to desert 4WD adventures

Nearly three out of four 4WD fans want to travel to desert Australia, according to new national surveys, yet the number of self-drive desert trips has not increased. So why aren’t more 4WD fans realising their dream?

“Desert businesses may be missing out on opportunities because there are poor links between what the market wants and what’s happening on the ground,” warns the Dean Carson with TM leader of On Track , the Desert Knowledge CRC’s the On TrackTM steering research project into desert 4WD tourism. group. The research project draws on the contributions of a wide “The market has become quite homogenous,” Dr Dean range of participants in Carson says. “Most travellers fit a similar demographic an on-line knowledge profile and tend to be ‘desert experts’ on relatively long community (http://www. trips.” desertknowledgecrc. com.au/research/ 4wdtourism.html) Dean says research shows potential for growth in the international market, and demand for a wider range of experiences. “4WD enthusiasts want options for shorter trips, expert help in getting around the desert, to On TrackTM is about improving the capacity of desert combine driving with activities such as bushwalking and settlements to provide viable 4WD tourism products fossicking, but also elements of luxury and relaxation at while protecting cultural, social and natural values. the end of a long day on the track.” Lead by Dean Carson, Principal Research Fellow of Charles Darwin University’s Tourism Research Group, Tourism marketing and land management agencies the project will also help 4WD travellers to keep safe. have shown strong interest in the research. Tourism NT, a major supporter of On TrackTM, is using research Dean is an expert in analysing large and complex data findings to develop a new 4WD tourism plan as well as sets, a skill he has used in fields as diverse as river touring routes in Central Australia. catchment management, Aboriginal housing, rural employment in the health sector, population mobility “4WD travellers want to come to the desert and and tourism. He has designed and built large web- accomplish one of our famous tracks. If we can broaden based information services for the tourism sector and the market and add value to these trips through targeted published books on self-drive tourism and innovation products, 4WD tourism may become a significant part of in regional tourism. local economies, including Aboriginal communities,” says Dean. Before he joined the Desert Knowledge CRC he ran the Centre for Regional Tourism Research at Southern Next year, the research team plans to deliver a model Cross University. His research interests include describing where 4WD tourists go, product development managing regional tourism for economic and social ideas for Aboriginal businesses, and strategies for gains, self-drive tourism and the use of information encouraging responsible travel. and communications technology in tourism.

  learning two ways together

Spencer and Gillen: eat your hearts out. Central Australian participatory and collaborative research,” says Sarah Aboriginal people, believed to be one of the most studied Holcombe, who helped design the workshops. The groups around, are getting in on the research act. But Desert Knowledge CRC’s Social Science Coordinator unlike the pair of colonial anthropologists, the descendants says Research Nintiringtjaku is not only about of their research subjects have the interests and priorities registered training and employment for Aboriginal of their remote communities at heart. people on research projects. “We also need to build the capacity of existing researchers to collaborate on equal Research Nintiringtjaku (‘clever for research’) is a new terms – so our work makes a real difference.” training initiative by an Alice Springs-based Aboriginal women’s organisation that’s all about Aboriginal people [email protected] getting accreditation and jobs as researchers. http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/socialscience/

How researchers from different cultures might learn from each other was perhaps best summed up by a canvas Marie Briscoe from Titjikala community started at Ross River.

Desert Knowledge researcher Josie Douglas, CAT’s Kathie Rea and Irene Nangala at Waltja’s AGM and Training Day

Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi, which assists families and services on Aboriginal communities, has joined forces with the Desert Knowledge CRC to create employment opportunities for its members in research projects.

In July, 16 Waltja members from across Central Australia gathered for a three-day workshop at Ross River Homestead in the East Macdonnell Ranges to talk about what makes for good research. Learning in the Community: Learning Two Some of their communities have a long history of researchers coming and going. It hasn’t at times been a Ways Together shows “whitefella and good experience. Anangu families working together good way, respecting different ways, listening, talking “It is important that Aboriginal people get recognition about things together”. The feet represent and proper payment for the support they give to “action, everyone helping together.” researchers,” explains Sharijn King, Waltja’s manager.

Irene Nangala, chairperson of Waltja and Kintore Council, was one of the participants at the workshop. The multilingual former education worker, who helped set up the Kintore school in the ’80s, says: “Senior Anangu know all about what is happening on their communities. They can talk up for their communities. They can help visitors like government people, and people who come to do training or research. They can tell them the right people to talk to, and they can explain in language so everyone understands.”

A follow-up workshop in September brought Waltja members and Desert Knowledge researchers together. Glen Edwards talks feral camels at the Research “We’re building a shared understanding of the value of Nintiringtjaku workshop

  titjikala shares desert knowledge

Central Australian Aboriginal community Titjikala has joined with the Desert Knowledge CRC to create new research training, employment and enterprise opportunities for its residents.

Jan Ferguson, the centre’s Managing Director, welcomed the community as an affiliate partner of the Desert Knowledge research network. “The agreement brings us a step closer to our goal of genuine participation with Aboriginal people in research that is useful to them,” Jan said.

Titjikala leaders want to tap into a broader knowledge network to develop their community. Local councillor and elder, Johnny Briscoe, said he hoped the collaboration with the Desert Knowledge CRC would help his community. “We like to see our projects to combine the best of our knowledge with the best of Western science. We think this is the best way forward,” he said.

Johnny works with Desert Knowledge researchers on Plants for People, a community development project Johnny Briscoe makes soap from Irmangka that provides research training, documents and protects Irmangka (Eremophila alternifolia) Aboriginal knowledge about bush medicines and explores the healing properties and commercial potential of the plants.

His community already operates a successful cultural tourism joint venture.

The Desert Knowledge CRC and Titjikala have agreed on stringent protocols that protect the intellectual property each organisation brings to the collaboration. The protocols also ensure that the rights to jointly developed intellectual property are shared equally between the partners.

Listen to an interview with Johnny on www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research/desertbusiness.html For more information contact Louis Evans [email protected] and http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/ research/desertbusinesses.html

Johnny Briscoe (third from left) and Jan Ferguson celebrate the agreement with Titjikala leaders. From left to right: Douglas Wells, Lincoln Boko, Johnny Briscoe, Phillip Wilyuka, Jan Ferguson, Samuel Campbell, Andrew Wilyuka and Joseph Rawson

  keeping bush foods benefits in the desert

Aboriginal people have thrived on desert bush foods for tens of thousands of years. Only about 30 years ago they began to sell their harvest to outsiders, starting a bush foods industry worth an estimated $10 million nationally per year and growing rapidly. Bush tomatoes and wattle seeds, hand-gathered by people from remote communities, are its star performers.

The Merne Altyerre-ipenhe (Food from the Creation Time) Reference Group wants to make sure Aboriginal people benefit from the industry. Eight respected cultural experts and business women from the main desert language groups with strong links to harvesters are working on a set of protocols for researchers and, Harvesters from Epenarra community with drums of eventually, the whole industry. wattle seeds. Photo: Genevieve O’Loughlin

annual desert knowledge student forum

27th and 28th February 2007 in Alice Springs More information: [email protected]

Merne Altyerre-ipenhe (Food from the Creation Time) Reference Group: Rayleen Brown (Eastern Arrernte), Lorna Wilson (), Bess Price (Warlpiri), MK Turner (Eastern Arrernte), Veronica Dobson (Eastern Arrernte) and researcher Josie Douglas. Absent: Gina Smith dishing the DIRT (Warumungu), Maree Meredith – Central Land Council staff. Most Australians get their messages on the They are planning workshops about the bush foods internet or the phone – but desert Australians industry with harvesters in different language regions could soon receive theirs from the sky. Remote and are promoting the employment of Aboriginal people desert settlements are set to take advantage of a and the recognition of their knowledge in bush foods new generation of simple and effective electronic enterprises, research and development. communications using ordinary household TV sets. Part of the Desert Knowledge CRC’s research into the development and sale of natural resource products from the desert, the group wants the industry and consumers to respect Aboriginal knowledge and people, and to raise awareness of the spiritual and cultural significance of bush foods.

Reference group member Veronica Dobson, an Eastern Arrernte elder, says bush foods and the plants they come from are more than commodities: “People are related to country and plants are related to people because they come from the country.”

“There are stories for the plants and plants are totems for people. They respect the plants when they collect seeds and fruits from them. People need to care for their totems so they don’t get destroyed. It’s a spiritual thing.”

For more information contact [email protected] http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research/ DIRT project participant Noeli Roberts gets a hug bushproducts.html from Lucas Mitchell at Kanpa.

 traditional owners go-ahead for desert knowledge precinct

NT Minister for Regional Development, Kon Vatskalis (seated 2nd from right), Desert Knowledge CRC board member Harold Furber (right) and CLC Chairman Lindsay Bookie (2nd from left) sign off on an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with Brian Stirling of Lhere Artepe, the traditional owners of the site of the multi-million dollar Desert Knowledge precinct south of Alice Springs. The first building to go up, the Business and Innovation Centre, will become the new home of the Desert Knowledge CRC. Central Land Council Director, David Ross (left), hailed the agreement as a ‘victory for common sense’. He summed up what people expected of the research network: ‘Common sense research for the common good.’

The Desert Knowledge CRC has successfully tested an innovative, low cost and globally relevant way for spreading messages, from bush fire and storm warnings to ceremonial gatherings and road closures. Satellite and digital technology allows messages from service agencies, other remote settlements thousands of kilometres away, or created and circulated just within one community to reach people while they are watching TV.

Andrew Turk from the Desert Interactive Remote Television (DIRT) project looked at how desert Aboriginal people can translate the new possibilities of digital television into more sustainable settlements. In collaboration with Murdoch and Wollongong Universities, Maurice McGinley from the DIRT team records stories with Cynthia Nelson, Delissa Ryder and friend at he studied how TV is used in Aboriginal communities on Irrunytju community. the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the remote east of WA. “Sending audio messages in the local languages to TV “It’s the most important electronic medium,” Andrew says. sets is perhaps the most effective way of getting them “TV sets are turned on for most of the day, and people directly to those who need to know.” watch a wide variety of programs in a group, discussing what they are seeing.” Messages could also be in the form of ‘targeted advertisements’, for example featuring local people “This makes TV ideal for spreading messages – vital talking about health issues. information that can make the communities themselves more sustainable.” The project team is looking for partners to take DIRT to the next stage. For more information contact: Existing technology allows the use of spare bandwidth [email protected]. to transmit digital local messages to any TV set with a dish antenna, even to a single set. Communities with one To listen to an interview with Andrew go to www. central dish can re-broadcast them to all households. desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research/services.html

 new tool to save the world’s topsoil

Where the wind blows the dust flies, taking with it for good millions of tonnes of valuable top soil.

A new technique for mapping areas at risk of wind erosion, the brainchild of a Desert Knowledge CRC doctoral student, promises to help us hang on to our precious desert dirt.

Pastoralists may soon benefit from monthly maps of erosion hazards for the whole continent, thanks to Nick Webb’s Australian Land Erodibility Model (AUSLEM).

“The questions we haven’t been able to accurately answer until “AUSLEM is based on our work to define meteorological and surface conditions under now are: Where is the dust coming from? Which areas are most which land may become vulnerable to wind vulnerable to wind erosion?” he says. “If we can understand erosion,” says PhD student Nick Webb. that, we can take steps to reduce the effects of soil loss on pastoral production.”

Nick, who presented the model at an international wind erosion conference in Canada in July, says AUSLEM will give pastoralists a realistic assessment of the potential for wind erosion to occur in a particular area. This will allow them to become much more effective at land management planning.

“Land managers in the world’s desert regions, who need to have a very good understanding of the fragile environments in which they operate, will benefit most from AUSLEM,” predicts the University of Queensland researcher. “In a world seeking to arrest the spread of deserts, it has great potential for global use.”

Nick say he hopes that AUSLEM will eventually process data from across Australia and provide on-line erosion maps to land managers everywhere.

For more information conact [email protected] http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/aboutus/people/students.html

describing desert diversity

A Desert Knowledge researcher presented the best student paper at the Australian Rangelands Society’s 14th biennial conference The Cutting Edge in September.

The award-winning paper by PhD student Ken Clarke from the University of Adelaide demonstrated that conventional plant survey methods do not adequately describe the species richness of perennial desert vegetation.

Ken’s discovery of the limitations of current field survey data means that a sound measure of species richness for biodiversity modelling or planning can now be developed.

For more information contact [email protected] Ken Clarke photos by K & C Benz

10 11 new-look board on cultural exchange

Cliff Coulthard explains Malki, a significant Andnyamathanha site, to Desert Knowledge CRC chair Paul Wand (left), new deputy chair Noel Bridge and new board member Mark Chmielewski.

Aboriginal culture, family and business success go together. That was the lesson the new-look Desert Knowledge Board and their guests took away from their September meeting at Iga Warta, an internationally- renowned tourism venture in the northern Flinders Ranges.

A “powerful and moving learning experience”, according to one guest, Iga Warta is one of Australia’s most successful Aboriginal-owned tourism businesses. The family enterprise is the realisation of a prominent Adnyamathanha elder’s dream to promote Aboriginal Glenise Coulthard Christine Charles culture through tourism. As the coordinator of Aboriginal Health Services at the New deputy chair Noel Bridge, an Aboriginal business Port Augusta Hospital and Regional Health Services, leader from Western Australia, enjoyed a tour of Glenise also believes thriving desert regions need significant Andyamathanha sites. A director of the accessible and efficient services. She clearly knows Desert Knowledge CRC Board since 2003, Noel runs what it takes, having developed South Australia’s first a business development consultancy with a strong Aboriginal health unit, now a model for the state’s track record of helping Aboriginal enterprises and not- hospitals. for-profit organisations to succeed. He grew up in the remote Kimberley town of Halls Creek and represents Christine Charles, another new board member, is the interests of the bush on the Telstra Country Wide the Regional Director, Environmental and Social Advisory Board. Responsibility of the Australia/New Zealand operations of Newmont, the world’s largest gold mining company. Desert tourism is just one of the research areas on the board’s radar. “We need creative ideas that support Completing the new-look board is Mark Chmielewski, sustainable livelihoods so people want to stay and live in manager of the Indigenous Agriculture section of the our deserts,” Noel said. Western Australian Department of Agriculture. With a brief to improve the participation of Aboriginal people South Australian Aboriginal leader Glenise Coulthard in WA’s agriculture, food and fibre industry, Mark works joined the Desert Knowledge CRC Board earlier this closely with Aboriginal businesses. He is already year “to make sure Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people spreading the word about the cultural exchange he benefit from the growth of desert tourism because this enjoyed at Iga Warta: “It sets a very high benchmark for will bring about true reconciliation.” regional and remote tourism.”

11 farewell cuppa for tjanpi family

Four Alice Springs based fibre artists have minyma (women) and tjitji (children) form part of sent life-size grass sculptures of two women an exhibit in a gallery which explores Australia’s and two children to Canberra to teach the national symbols and identity. nation about seed collecting in Central Australia. The display, developed in collaboration with the Desert Knowledge CRC, reflects the growing interest in Australian bush foods such as wattle seed and bush raisins from Central Australia and macadamias from southeast Queensland and northeast NSW.

The four Western Desert artists who made the sculptures, Noeline Baker, Nyukana Baker, Pantjiti McKenzie and Jennifer Mitchell, work with NPY Women’s Council’s Tjanpi Aboriginal Baskets project.

They all live in Alice Springs to support family members who receive treatment for kidney But not before bidding them a proper farewell, disease. as one of the artists explains:

“It took us a long time to make that tjanpi (native grass) family and we really miss them. We took them out bush to share a last cup of tea and to say goodbye,” says Jennifer Mitchell (pictured), a Ngaanyatjarra speaker from Blackstone in WA.

“They are a long way from country because they have very important work to do in Canberra helping to tell a big story about collecting food out bush.”

As centrepieces of a National Museum of Australia display on bush foods, the tjanpi

talking bush foods

The National Museum of Australia has invited Desert Knowledge CRC researchers and members of the Merne Altyerre-ipenhe Reference Group (see p. 8) to discuss wild harvest with museum guests during a public event in early 2007. The event will feature bush foods cooking demonstrations, grass weaving workshops, music and a discussion panel.