Faith A Ochwada-Doyle, Carl Bevilacqua, Sarah Fairfull, Sharon Barnes, Michael Barnes, Anne Campbell, Sandra Hindman, Jeffery Murphy, Matthew D Taylor, Michael Lowry, Kirrily Slater, Uncle Amos Donovan, Kelly O’brien, Uncle Bill O’brien and the people of the Birpai and Bunyah Local Aboriginal Land Councils.
Indigenous access to natural resources plays a critical role in ensuring conservation, sustainable use and equitable management. For global marine and freshwater environments, this access requires empirical information on Cultural fishing to ensure better inclusion of Indigenous needs and practices in management. In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, around 90% of the species captured through Cultural Fishing are also harvested by the commercial and recreational sectors. However, information on patterns of Cultural fishing and its traditional significance is lacking when compared to our understanding of these other sectors. This data gap needs to be addressed to ensure Indigenous voices and interests inform policy and decision-making related to fisheries conservation and management.
Here, we showcase recent attempts in NSW to remedy this gap through equitable adoption and promotion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western practices – a “Two-Eyed Seeing” approach. We take you through the collaborative development of trial Aboriginal Cultural Fishing Local Management Plans (LMPs) which represent a modern framework for managing Cultural Fishing. We also present a novel pilot study that redresses the data gap at a local level by applying an Indigenous led and co-designed longitudinal survey to collate fishery information told from the perspective of Aboriginal community members. The study’s design also captures Indigenous knowledge on the motivational significance of fishing. We take you through the journey of local engagement and dialogue, which led to the establishment of the trial LMPs and the development of research methods that uphold Indigenous self-determination, leadership and data sovereignty. Finally, we discuss the wider applicability of the information collected in fisheries management.