Indigenous Resilience

Mr David Collard1, Mr Nate Rew1

1David Collard & Associates, Como, Western Australia, Australia, Australia

Abstract:

In this oral presentation, Nyungar man Wardong and pasifika youth Nate Rew engage in a collaborative discussion on the future of ocean and land management. Central to their discussion is the recognition of local expertise and resilience demonstrated by indigenous People’s in safeguarding biodiversity. Through emphasizing the importance of grounding practices for mitigating and overcoming the effects of climate change in indigenous knowledges they recognize that not only are indigenous people’s our history, but also our future. Wardong and Nate both attended COP 25 under the UNFCCC and represented their respective communities in the Indigenous People’s Caucus advocating for the protection and recognition of indigenous knowledges on the global scale. This discussion brings together their experiences, fighting at the international and local levels for climate justice and the protection of indigenous rights, to explore how indigenous and non-indigenous peoples can work together to overcome the challenges presented by climate change.


Biography:

Wardong (Dave Collard) is a Nyungar man from southwest of Western Australia. He is active in Natural Resource Management across all streams and is currently involved in implementing a response to Native Title implementation for Land Management regimes that are transferred back to the Traditional Owners using the Indigenous Land Use Agreements.

Nate Rew is a New Zealand raised Papuan from the coastal village of Iokea in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. He is an activist and an academic and is currently writing his PhD at the University of Auckland on indigenous philosophies of water.