Jessica K Weir’s scientific contributions

Climate change has generated interest in the roles and responsibility of indigenous peoples in adapting to and mitigating change, as their culture and social organisation is deeply embedded in land and water. This chapter considers the opportunity offered by the formal recognition of indigenous peoples' property rights in Australia under native title for stronger climate change institutions, and the challenges that persist despite this recognition. Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate (RNTBCs) reflect structures of community governance that have been articulated and recognised under the Native Title Act; indeed, they form the evidence required for proving native title. The chapter compares the experiences of two RNTBCs in Bidyadanga and Kowanyama to identify blockages and opportunities in the laws, policies and relationships that determined their interactions with land and water management institutions.

Much of the attention paid to native title in Australia has focused on court proceedings and other legalities, but what does it actually mean to live with native title? This book presents the experiences of native title holders and the corporations they have established to look after their native title interests. The influence of the renowned High Court Mabo case is such that there are already more than 100 Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate (RNTBCs) across Australia with responsibilities for about 18 per cent of the continent. RNTBCs operate in a profoundly intercultural context where ‘western’ and Indigenous laws are constantly interpreted and negotiated as part of a new suite of landholding and land management practices for contemporary Australia. Through seven case studies from the Torres Strait, Far North Queensland, the Kimberley and Central Australia, Living with native title documents the experiences of RNTBCs, including those that are parties to large mining agreements. Each case study is accompanied by a short update written immediately prior to publication. Living with native title is a product of the AIATSIS research project Prescribed Bodies Corporate: Research Action Partnerships.

Much of the attention paid to native title in Australia has focused on court proceedings and other legalities, but what does it actually mean to live with native title? This chapter introduces the structure of our edited book and outlines the case studies. It then highlights the key issues emerging from the case studies, as well as drawing on the lessons and findings of longer term AIATSIS research with RNTBCs, as outlined in the Preface. The chapter highlights the uncertainties and complexities faced not only by RNTBCs but also by other institutions engaged with the native title sector. The broad themes addressed are: the legal and conceptual framings of native title, including contestation over its meaning; the complexities of RNTBC governance, focusing on procedural issues and the need for RNTBCs to negotiate their roles as newcomers in local and regional governance; economic opportunities, risks and barriers; and RNTBC support needs and capacity issues.

With prolonged drought and climate change, water has once again come into focus in national, state and territory policy development, prompting the review of water planning and management. As part of this, policy makers have revisited the complexities of establishing large-scale industrial agriculture in Australia’s tropical monsoon country (Ross, 2009). Water planning in Karajarri country in the West Kimberley of Western Australia is occurring within this context. For Karajarri, they hope that the planning process will help ensure that water is treated the ‘right way’ for country (Mulardy Jnr cited in Mathews, 2008). This paper describes the successful local opposition to a major cotton proposal, however, this paper is not set around this event. Rather, the event is a meaningful prompt for discussions about how water decisions are being made, how they could be made, and how water planning could be better designed to support development aspirations of the communities within the Basin.

Bushfire risk mitigation measures have become increasingly integrated into the responsibilities held by planning professionals, and this is indicative of a broader trend of emergency management responsibilities being formally adopted by other sectors. This paper considers how the integration of bushfire risk into urban and regional planning is being grappled with across four landscapes and jurisdictions in Australia. The paper draws on four focus groups held between fire authorities and planners in the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. The research reveals the common challenges of this work, and instances where innovation is occurring between fire authorities and planners. However, it remains that there is no straightforward ‘planning solution’ for reducing bushfire risk.

The roles of Indigenous people in climate change adaptation are little understood. Current research highlights the contribution of Indigenous knowledge to climate change monitoring and observation, the role of community organisations in developing adaptive capacity, environmental justice and regimes for the participation of Indigenous people in abatement and climate change economies. What has not featured prominently in climate change adaptation literature is how Indigenous groups interact with the socio-institutional structures to assert their knowledges and participate in climate change adaptation activities. The evidence of rising temperatures, increasing frequency of extreme weather events including flooding and cyclone activity that is present on Indigenous held lands throughout Australia brings attention to Indigenous people in climate change discourse. However, the remote location of many Indigenous communities and the severe disadvantage suffered by Indigenous people in Australian society has meant that climate change and vulnerability have become a common coupling in describing Indigenous peoples’ engagement in recent literature. Questions of how Indigenous communities make decisions about how they want to respond to new risks arising from rapid shifts in climate and the socio-institutional environment in which this occurs, are yet to be fully explored or understood. The risks and uncertainties of climate change create new impetus to investigate the ways in which Indigenous communities respond to climatic changes on their traditional lands, redirecting attention and resources to Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives. There are also new social and institutional changes that have been introduced by the retrospective recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights under Australian law and the regime established under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). This research project aims to bring understanding to the socio-institutional framework for decision-making on Indigenous held lands that impact on climate change adaptation and has been undertaken with the support from two Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate (RNTBCs) from the Kimberley and Cape York: the Karajarri Traditional Lands Association Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (KTLA) based in Bidyadanga, Western Australia and Abm Elgoring Ambung Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (Abm Elgoring Ambung) based in Kowanyama, Queensland.

The overtly technical process of making a native title application has obscured one of the central reasons why Indigenous people engage with the native title system – to affirm and promote their relationships with country. This chapter has been specifically written to bring clarity to what is meant by 'country', 'native title' and 'ecology', and how these three understandings interact in law and practice. There are three sections: 'Countries and Ecologies'; 'Native Titles' and, 'Native Title as environmental management'.