A Guugu Yimmithir Bam Wii: Ngawiya and Girrbithi: Hunting, planning and management along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Abstract

The integration of Indigenous cultural rights with biodiversity protection can be explored in multiple dimensions and occupy contested grounds. This paper outlines the results of a research project that applied discourse analysis as both a theoretical and methodological tool to examine the power and knowledge relations within a case study of the development of a turtle and dugong hunting management plan by the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community in northern Australia. This paper reports on the results of this analysis and shows how multiple binaries exist within and between the different actors in a resource management problem. Findings show that contested constructions of the environment are hugely influential to the success or failure of natural resource management endeavours. The ontological frames that are adopted in supporting Indigenous peoples to manage their land and seas must be understood, otherwise there is a risk of reinforcing the very binaries that need to be avoided.