Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council Board members along with an exciting representation of cross disciplinary researchers met recently in Derby to hear about the progress of a number of collaborative research projects and to discuss important strategic directions as MFRC grows it's capacity. Future outward facing communications initiatives was high on the agenda.
Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council CEO, Dr Glenn Woods welcomed everyone to the gathering sharing his deep and continuing relationship with the Martuwarra Country, Living Waters and people. Glenn brings a wealth of experience and is excited by the relationships he is building with Council. He is keen to continue capture the stories from Council to share across the MFRC website. Glenn highlighted the new Communications Strategy he is building with the collaboration of Board members and incoming communications specialist, Sarah Sackville. The re-focus on outward communications builds on the work already done by Dr Jiniya (Virginia) Westwood, Research Fellow (Nulungu Institute, UNDA) working directly through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer with the Martuwarra Riverkeeper, Hozaus Claire and Edwin Mulligan, her logistical and IT support is never taken for granted.
Led with great energy and enthusiasm as always by Dr Anne Poelina, MFRC Chair and Professor, Chair and Senior Reserach Fellow at Nulungu Reserach Institute, University of Notre Dame, the workshop was a creative and valuable opportunity to partner with senior researchers and doctoral researchers, undertaking research from four national
universities: Charles Darwin University, University of South Australian and the Australian National University and the Nulungu Institute of Research, University of Notre Dame (Broome). In the photo below we have eight researchers with
Doctorates in multiple disciplines, four of these are Professors: Kamal Sangha(CDU), Jeff Connor (UniSA) and Anne Poelina (CDU, UniSA, UNDA) collaborating and supervising the doctoral students. Professor Sangha has secured investment for several of the Council members to travel to India in a cross-cultural exchange with traditional owners from the Northern Territory, in late 2024 -early 2025. Importantly, she shared her research across northern Australia and is looking to include the Council, to better understand the ‘Indigenous values’ which need to be included in
the emerging ‘Biodiversity and Natural Capital Markets’.
The workshop and after-hours discussion and debates were highly informed by the Council members. The transfer of Indigenous knowledge from elders to the younger leaders is always through a process of learning and unlearning. Extending this out to the researchers who work with the Council, this is indeed a co-operative inquiry in
action, where collective wisdom and two ways science, knowledge is generating a new body of knowledge to inform policy makers, legal practioners and scholars of of how we showcase this globally unique Martuwarra Fitzroy River Watershed.
Lachie Carracher, who took the group photo, is Operations Manager with the Department of Water and Environment Regulations (DEWR) Partnership with Nulungu (UNDA). Lachie provided an update on the Climate Adaptation Project; to
look at how West Kimberley traditional owners will be able to adapt and remain resilient with the growing uncertainty of climate change and the development projects planned for the region. Importantly, the Martuwarra Riverkeepers and
members of the Council will be working with Lachie to start to develop the monitoring sites along the Martuwarra. There are two other case studies, informing and building the ‘Climate Adaptation Project’ knowledge to share in a Climate Forum for West Kimberley Traditional Owners planned for May 2025.
The Council looks forward to building our research networks and finding the time to bring the doctoral students on Country for more extensive individual projectengagement. It’s all about relationships, building trust capital and the process of
Free Prior and Informed decision making. Council holds the view; we cannot have water justice without climate justice. In a time of great uncertainty, we must hold the right and responsibilities to ensure procedural and distributive justice. Importantly, the right and responsibility to live on Country in a clean environment, with all our neighbours and our non-human kin ‘free from harm and pollution’, whilst building the evidence base for the economies of wellbeing. The Council and these research partners value the wisdom of our people. Collectively we are investing in building our capacity through knowledge making and brokerage to ensure the right of our sacred River and ancestral being’s right to live and flow.
Pictured below from backleft: Patricia Riley (and grandson), MFRC Director; Lloyd Kwilla, MFRC Director; Oscar Metcalfe, (PhD Student, Charles Darwin University); Edwin Mulligan, MFRC Director; Janice Butt, MFRC Director; Sarah Sackville, MFRC Communications; Elizabeth Damoah, (PhD student, University of South Australia); Petrus Poelina-Hunter, MFRC Snr River Keeper; Glenn Woods, MFRC CEO; Marco Moreno, (PhD Student, University of South Australia); Gordon Smith Jnr, MFRC Director.
Bottom seated from left: Anne Poelina, MFRC Chair; Katharina-Victoria Perez-Hammerle, MFRC Research Associate; Kamaljit Sangah, Charles Darwin University; Jeff Conner, University of South Australia; Katherine Taylor, University of Notre Dame ; Viriginia Westwood, University of Notre Dame.
