Indigenous women’s preferences for climate change adaptation and aquaculture development to build capacity in the Northern Territory Final Report Lisa Petheram, Ann Fleming, Natasha Stacey, and Anne Perry Indigenous women’s preferences for climate change adaptation and aquaculture development to build capacity in the Northern Territory Charles Darwin University Northern Territory Government Australian National University LISA PETHERAM, ANN FLEMING, NATASHA STACEY AND ANNE PERRY Published by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ISBN: 978-1-925039-55-9 NCCARF Publication 84/13 © 2013 Charles Darwin University This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the copyright holder. Please cite this report as: Petheram, L, Fleming, A, Stacey, N and Perry, A 2013 Indigenous women’s preferences for climate change adaptation and aquaculture development to build capacity in the Northern Territory, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 44. Acknowledgement This work was carried out with financial support from the Australian Government (Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Commonwealth or NCCARF, and neither the Commonwealth nor NCCARF accept responsibility for information or advice contained herein. The role of NCCARF is to lead the research community in a national interdisciplinary effort to generate the information needed by decision-makers in government, business and in vulnerable sectors and communities to manage the risk of climate change impacts. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Warruwi community for their participation and support in this project. Additionally, the authors would like to thank: Professor Will Steffen and Professor Lesley Hughes for their role as climate change advisors in the project; the West Arnhem Shire, especially Wayne Tupper for support and guidance on project design and operations; Edward Allison from University of East Anglia and Anthea Fawcett from the Remote Indigenous Gardens Network for advice on project design and methods; Thalia van den Boogaard and Marcus Bohl, Darwin Aquaculture Centre and Fisheries staff and Daniel Costa from CDU Horticulture and Aquaculture for logistical support in the field; Wendy Banta and Beau Austin for advice and provision of relevant literature; Michelle Franklin for compiling ABS data, map and tireless reference and editing support; Owen Stanley for assistance in sourcing Mission Records; Roslyn Poignant for allowing the use of her husband Axel Poignant’s historical photographs for the field research; Ruth Singer for linguistic advice; and anonymous reviewers for their advice. Cover image: Giant clam photo © Lisa Petheram TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................... 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 2 1. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 4 1.1. PROJECT CONTEXT ............................................................................................................... 4 1.2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................... 5 2. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.1. INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DEPENDENCE ON MARINE RESOURCES AND SUBSISTENCE HARVESTING PRACTICES .................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2. ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE ......................................................................................... 9 2.3. AQUACULTURE IN REMOTE COASTAL COMMUNITIES............................................................... 11 3. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND METHOD .............................................................................. 14 3.1. CASE STUDY SITE ............................................................................................................... 14 3.2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND THEORY ............................................................................. 19 3.3. FIELD ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................................ 20 4. RESULTS AND OUTPUTS ...................................................................................................... 4 4.1. BACKGROUND CONTEXT ........................................................................................................ 4 4.2. DEPENDENCE ON MARINE RESOURCES................................................................................... 5 4.3. CLIMATE CHANGE ................................................................................................................. 9 4.4. PERCEPTIONS AND RECEPTIVITY TOWARDS AQUACULTURE ................................................... 12 5. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY ............................................................................................. 16 5.1. UNDERSTANDING AND OBSERVING ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’; A FOREIGN TERM? .............................. 16 6. GAPS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS ................................................................. 23 6.1. IMPROVED COMMUNICATION AND INDIGENOUS INVOLVEMENT IN DECISION-MAKING ................. 23 6.2. SUPPORT FOR ADAPTATION AND AQUACULTURE ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ......................... 23 6.3. MEASURING ECOLOGICAL CHANGE ....................................................................................... 23 6.4. CONNECTING LOCAL PARTICIPANTS WITH OTHER INDIGENOUS AND ISLANDER COMMUNITIES ... 24 6.5. FURTHER SCIENTIFIC TESTING AND SCOPING OF AQUACULTURE TECHNIQUES FOR THE REGION 24 6.6. ECONOMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL FEASIBILITY AND RISKS OF AQUACULTURE .............................. 24 6.7. DEVELOPMENT OF THEORY RELATING TO ADAPTATION, PLANNING, RESILIENCE AND WELLBEING ................................................................................................................................................ 24 7. KEY LEARNINGS FOR NORTHERN TERRITORY GOVERNMENT POLICY ON AQUACULTURE ........................................................................................................................ 25 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 26 APPENDIX 1: AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS DATA ............................................. 37 APPENDIX 2: AQUACULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE GAME .......................................... 39 APPENDIX 3: CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATIONAL BROCHURE ........................................... 42 APPENDIX 4: RESEARCH PROJECT BROCHURE ................................................................ 43 List of figures Figure 1. Map of the location of South Goulburn Island and the community of Warruwi _____ 14 Figure 2. Warruwi community store ______________________________________________ 15 Figure 3. A child picking up a giant clam shell (commonly eaten) on a local beach, South Goulburn Island _____________________________________________________________ 16 Figure 4. Participatory drawing/mapping of South Goulburn Island _____________________ 21 Figure 5. Participants carrying out ranking exercises ________________________________ 21 Figure 6. Diagrams depicting climate change impacts and preferred adaptation options _____ 21 Figure 7. Sustainable livelihoods framework (stones represent current situation, marbles preferred) __________________________________________________________________ 21 Figure 8. Participants looking at pictures relating to aquaculture _______________________ 21 Figure 9. Participant playing the aquaculture, climate change board game _______________ 21 List of tables Table 1. Techniques used during workshops and interviews in this research. ____________ 22 Table 2. Details relating to each of the workshops conducted during this research. _________ 23 List of abbreviations and acronyms ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research AIATSIS Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Studies ANU Australian National University BOM Bureau of Meteorology COAG Council of Australian Governments CDEP Community Development Employment Projects CDU Charles Darwin University CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation DCCEE Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations GI Goulburn Island HREOC Australian Human Rights Commission IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change NAILSMA Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance NARP National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan NCCARF National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility NLC Northern Land Council NT Northern Territory ORIC Office of the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporation PAR Participatory Action Research SCRGSP Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision SLF Sustainable Livelihoods Framework VET Vocational Education and Training