Indigenous Australians have long understood sustainable hunting and harvesting, seasonal changes in flora and fauna, predator–prey relationships and imbalances, and seasonal fire management. Yet the extent of their knowledge and expertise has been largely unknown and underappreciated by non-Aboriginal colonists, especially in the south-east of Australia where Aboriginal culture was severely fractured. Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia is the first book to examine historical records from early colonists who interacted with south-eastern Australian Aboriginal communities and documented their understanding of the environment, natural resources such as water and plant and animal foods, medicine and other aspects of their material world. This book provides a compelling case for the importance of understanding Indigenous knowledge, to inform discussions around climate change, biodiversity, resource management, health and education. It will be a valuable reference for natural resource management agencies, academics in Indigenous studies and anyone interested in Aboriginal culture and knowledge.

This book examines comprehensively for the first time, the scope and accuracy of indigenous environmental knowledge. It shows that in some spheres, including agriculture, house design, fuel and water manipulation, the high reputation of local observers is well deserved and often sufficiently insightful to warrant wider imitation. However it also reveals that in certain matters, notably some aspects of health care and wild-species population management, local knowledge systems are conspicuously unsound. Not all the difficulties are of the communities own making, some stem from external factors outside their control. However in either case, remedial measures can be suggested and this book describes, especially for the benefit of practitioners, what steps might be taken in rural communities to improve the quality of life. The possibility of useful transfers of information from local settings to Western ones is not ignored and forms the subject of the book’s final chapter.

Whilst there are popular ideas about which champion Aboriginal environmental knowledge, many of these are based more on romantic notions than on any detailed understanding of what might be the content of this knowledge. This book is based on a grounded and broad assessment of less well known details of Aboriginal knowledge and provides both a great deal of detail and a new assessment of rituals and practices. Aboriginal environmental knowledge is examined here as an integrated source of both religious and scientific knowledge. An important finding is that Aboriginal environmental knowledge also includes knowledge about education for attitudes considered appropriate for survival. Though evidence for this is readily available in the literature, it has not been part of current depictions of Aboriginal environmental knowledge.

Indigenous research is an important and burgeoning field of study. With the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for the Indigenization of higher education and growing interest within academic institutions, scholars are exploring research methodologies that are centred in or emerge from Indigenous worldviews, epistemologies, and ontology. This new edited collection moves beyond asking what Indigenous research is and examines how Indigenous approaches to research are carried out in practice. Contributors share their personal experiences of conducting Indigenous research within the academy in collaboration with their communities and with guidance from Elders and other traditional knowledge keepers. Their stories are linked to current discussions and debates, and their unique journeys reflect the diversity of Indigenous languages, knowledges, and approaches to inquiry. Indigenous Research: Theories, Practices, and Relationships is essential reading for students in Indigenous studies programs, as well as for those studying research methodology in education, health sociology, anthropology, and history. It offers vital and timely guidance on the use of Indigenous research methods as a movement toward reconciliation.

Indigenous ways of understanding and interacting with the natural world are characterized as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which derives from emphasizing relationships and connections among species. This book examines TEK and its strengths in relation to Western ecological knowledge and evolutionary philosophy. Pierotti takes a look at the scientific basis of this approach, focusing on different concepts of communities and connections among living entities, the importance of understanding the meaning of relatedness in both spiritual and biological creation, and a careful comparison with evolutionary ecology. The text examines the themes and principles informing this knowledge, and offers a look at the complexities of conducting research from an indigenous perspective.

This book examines the process of collecting traditional environmental knowledge while using a "participatory action" or "community-based" approach. It looks at the problems associated with documenting traditional knowledge - problems that are shared by researchers around the world - and it explores some of the means by which traditional knowledge can be integrated with Western science to improve methods of natural resource management. Includes the Dene of the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, and the Inuit of Sanikiluaq, Belcher Islands

Sacred Ecology examines bodies of knowledge held by indigenous and other rural peoples around the world, and asks how we can learn from this knowledge and ways of knowing. Berkes explores the importance of local and indigenous knowledge as a complement to scientific ecology, and its cultural and political significance for indigenous groups themselves. This third edition further develops the point that traditional knowledge as process, rather than as content, is what we should be examining. It has been updated with about 150 new references, and includes an extensive list of web resources through which instructors can access additional material and further illustrate many of the topics and themes in the book. Winner of the Ecological Society of America's 2014 Sustainability Science Award.

Discover how conservation can be made more effective through strengthening links between science research, policy and practice. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

In a global context, understanding and engaging with Indigenous Peoples and understanding their contemporary values is becoming increasingly relevant. This book offers a major insight into Australian Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives on the built environment. Enriched with thoughtful Indigenous voices from across Australia, echoed with several pre-eminent non-Indigenous practitioner voices, the book discusses the value of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in the Australian built environment and landscapes. It provides their perspective of wanting to share, of wanting to be heard, and of wishing to journey into our future landscapes and environments sympathetically and sustainably; of wanting to mutually share this journey respectfully to the betterment of humanity and these landscapes. A major resource for all academics, students and practitioners in the built environment sector, internationally, and not just in Australia, the book embodies issues confronting Indigenous Peoples and their communities, and their concerns about the future of their custodial landscapes. The book’s national significance has already been identified by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) through its inclusion in their ‘Connection to Country: Case Studies’.