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Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Nyangumarta Warrarn IPA and Rangers

Dedicated in 2015, Nyangumarta Warrarn Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) covers a vast 2.8 million hectares. From the seemingly endless stretches of Eighty Mile Beach, to Ramsar listed wetlands and the rolling sand dunes of the Great Sandy Desert, Nyangumarta Warrarn IPA is a rich and varied landscape with high ecological values.

The Nyangumarta Warrarn IPA overlaps with several conservation reserves which are jointly vested or managed with the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife, such as Eighty Mile Beach Marine Park, Walyarta Conservation Park and Kujungurru Nature Reserve. The majority of the IPA though is desert country which harbours many culturally significant places and several threatened species such as the greater bilby, the marsupial mole and a number of endangered plant species.

Nyangumarta Native Title holders have a holistic approach to land management; the landscape, plants and animals with Nyangumarta country have been inseparable from Nyangumarta law, culture, language and traditional knowledge since Creation time and are integral to Indigenous conservation and land management.

The Nyangumarta Rangers are currently based in Bidyadanga, which is Karajarri country, but operate mainly in the Nyangumarta Warrarn IPA.

The Rangers monitor and protect the many sites that have cultural significance on Nyangumarta country, and tackle a range of land management activities such as weed management, water monitoring, fencing, feral animal and fire control. They record Traditional Ecological Knowledge to pass on to future generations, interact with students in a school environment or on field trips, and have started addressing tourism development priorities, particularly through the permit system put in place for the Nyangumarta Highway (Kidson Track/Wapet Road).

The Nyangumarta Rangers also collaborate with the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife in ecological surveys, and in monitoring threatened species such as marine turtles and the rich bird life visiting the coastal and wetland areas during the summer.

The Nyangumarta Warrarn Aboriginal Corporation has published a compilation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Nyangumarta Warrarn IPA - the booklet is a collection of ethno-botanical information passed down through generations of Nyangumarta people, and contains descriptions of 70 species.

Digital copies of the booklet can be downloaded from the YMAC website here.

State: 
WA - Central and Southern region
Administration Organisation
Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation
http://ymac.org.au/
Charmaine Wright, Nyangumarta Ranger. Photo :© Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation
Charmaine Wright, Nyangumarta Ranger. Photo :© Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation