INDIGENOUS INNOVATIONS
“Western technological societies continue to fail biodiversity,” Stephen Hopper tells me bluntly.
A world-renowned ecologist and professor of biodiversity at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Hopper believes that Indigenous land management practices could be the secret to saving Western Australia's landscapes. This is why he works with Traditional Owners to combine Indigenous knowledge with scientific research. He's spent a decade on Merningar/Menang and Goreng Country near Kinjarling/Albany, WA. It's a rugged landscape near the coast, with tall marri forests and large granite outcrops.
“You learn something different every time you have a yarn or go out bush,” he says. “I'm continually amazed by the generosity of Elders to share their knowledge.”
During the first few years, Hopper built relationships with Noongar Elders and families, including Merningar Elder Lynette Knapp, who has a very close relationship with the university. “They're my family,” she says. “It's like going out bush with my family.”
Together, Hopper, Knapp and another UWA academic Alison Lullfitz supervise a number of postgraduate students in projects that document Noongar innovation and knowledge (kaartadijin, pronouced cart-a-jin), ranging from traditional burns to animal traps. These collaborations are combining Noongar kaartadijin and Western science to produce important new Australian research – and an exciting model of how to combine such different knowledge systems.
