Abstract
Co-production across scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems has become a cornerstone of research to enhance knowledge, practice, ethics, and foster sustainability transformations. However, the profound differences in world views and the complex and contested histories of nation-state colonisation on Indigenous territories, highlight both opportunities and risks for Indigenous people when engaging with knowledge co-production. This paper investigates the conditions under which knowledge co-production can lead to improved Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management among remote land-attached Indigenous peoples through a case study with ten Traditional Owner groups in the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) Catchment in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. The research team built a 3D map of the river and used it, together with an interactive table-top projector, to bring together both scientific and Indigenous spatial knowledge. Participatory influence mapping, aligned with Traditional Owner priorities to achieve cultural governance and management planning goals set out in the Fitzroy River Declaration, investigated power relations. An analytical framework, examining underlying mechanisms of social learning, knowledge promotion and enhancing influence, based on different theories of change, was applied to unpack the immediate outcomes from these activities. The analysis identified that knowledge co-production activities improved the accessibility of the knowledge, the experiences of the knowledge users, strengthened collective identity and partnerships, and strengthened Indigenous-led institutions. The focus on cultural governance and management planning goals in the Fitzroy River Declaration enabled the activities to directly affect key drivers of Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management—the Indigenous-led institutions. The nation-state arrangements also gave some support to local learning and decision-making through a key Indigenous institution, Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. Knowledge co-production with remote land-attached Indigenous peoples can improve adaptive environmental planning and management where it fosters learning together, is grounded in the Indigenous-led institutions and addresses their priorities.
Highlights
Knowledge co-production, collaboration that brings together different sources and types of knowledge to address an issue, has become a cornerstone of research to foster sustainability transformations (Armitage et al 2011; Wyborn et al 2019)
This paper investigates the conditions under which knowledge co-production can foster impacts that improve Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management among remote land-attached Indigenous peoples, based on a case study with ten Traditional Owner2 groups in the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) basin of Western Australia, hereafter ‘Fitzroy catchment’ (Douglas et al 2019)
Yanunijarra Aboriginal Corporation Yungngora Aboriginal Corporation a The group corresponds to the name of the self-determined nations or Indigenous peoples associated with the noted NTDs or registered claim(s) that overlap the boundaries of the Fitzroy basin (Fig. 1)
Summary
This paper investigates the conditions under which knowledge co-production can foster impacts that improve Indigenous adaptive environmental planning and management among remote land-attached Indigenous peoples, based on a case study with ten Traditional Owner groups in the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) basin of Western Australia, hereafter ‘Fitzroy catchment’ (Douglas et al 2019). In Australia, the nation-state has sought to accommodate Indigenous rights primarily through renewed forms of legal and political recognition, including treaties, settlements, market-based instruments and rules in environmental and water planning legislation (Jackson 2018) Institutions arising from these recognition regimes, similar to other developed world contexts such as Canada and the USA, often remain colonial in their substance, based on patterns of domination which reinforce power asymmetries, rather than the reciprocal relations and obligations characterising Indigenous ways of living (Coulthard 2014; Whyte 2020). We posed the question “under what conditions can knowledge co-production lead to impacts that improve Indigenous
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.