First Nations knowledge to care for country

DJAARA, also known as the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, have launched a new tool kit members of the organisation hope will be used in managing the region’s natural environments.

Known as Galk-galk Dhelkunya, or ‘to care for/to heal, many trees’, the strategy is about “forest gardening.”

“The term forest gardening communicates how Dja Dja Wurrung people interact with the environment,” said Dja Dja Wurrung Group CEO Rodney Carter.

“It’s a contemporary approach to caring for country that is deeply rooted in traditional knowledge and practice.

“It is our response to threats such as land clearing, climate change, biodiversity loss and species extinction.

“Unfortunately, since Dja Dja Wurrung People have been prevented from tending Djandak over the last two hundred years, its health continues to decline, which continues to impact negatively on the health of Dja Dja Wurrung people.

“Let all people now participate in the good leadership that we believe we’ll bring.”

The Galk-galk Dhelkunya toolkit includes information on thinning of forests and burning in a cultural context, water management, along with revegetive, rehabilitative, and regenerative practices.

Mr Carter called on the wider community to incorporate the strategy into future land management.

“Everyone benefits when Djaara leads on country. But we cannot do this alone,” Mr Carter said.

“We invite people living and working on Djandak to walk with us to heal country together, guided by Dja Dja Wurrung custodial knowledge and forest gardening principles.

“Galk-galk Dhelkunya is Djaara’s statement for how we would like to heal and care for country.

“It is deliberately written as an empowering document to introduce land managers to a different and more holistic way of thinking about land management, and how we would like others to heal and care for country in partnership with us.”