5.1 Traditional Management Practices

• About forty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribal groups have territories adjacent to the reef. 

• These groups have social, cultural and economic links with the GBR area and have been managing the resources in this area for around 50 000 years. Known by some Local Aboriginals as  Wogoobagoo

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Environment  is important to the cultural values and way of life of the local Indigenous Australians. 

• Story telling, art, music, dance, spirituality, initiation ceremonies and the subsistence activities of the coastal people are intertwined with the marine environment.  For instance, an Aboriginal group north of Cooktown call themselves the Saltwater People. 

• Most groups have sacred animal totems like stingray, shark and dugong. It is their responsibility to look after these animals.

• Due to the rich variety of food resources available to them the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups lived a more sedentary lifestyle than than Aboriginal Groups inland. 

• Some islands in the Torres Strait had established villages, the Islanders travelling throughout the region in dugout outrigger canoes. The rich resources of the Cape York region were able to support greater densities of population than other areas of Australia.

Traditional Management Strategies

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander believed that they were not above nature but part of it thus they approached their management  of the GBR by being stewards as there is an obligation to look after one's country because of the deep spiritual links with the land. 

• Thus, traditional management strategies focus on using marine and terrestrial resources in a sustainable way. 

• They did this through a detailed practical knowledge of the ecosystem, its natural history and habitats, animal migration patterns and seasons.

• This detailed knowledge and connectedness led to strategies such as

1. Setting size limits on the fish they caught, some local Aboriginal people believe the sizes allowed these days are too small

2. Seasonal hunting, ensured that species could recover and be plentiful for the future

3. Assigning sacred animal totems so that person or group was responsible for its survival

4. Maintaining relatively small population levels and relatively low-level technology so it did not place stress on the ecosystem.

Indigenous co-management

• Scientists are slowly now beginning to appreciate the 1000s of generations worth of knowledge the local Aboriginal people have.  Thus they are using them to help in their research and protection of the GBR.

• In 1995, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority established an Indigenous Cultural Liaison Unit to identify areas of concern, such as native title, and the maintenance of cultural and traditional values. 

• Today, several Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are involved in co-management processes with managing agencies in the GBR area adjacent to their territory. 

• The communities have a variety of roles from purely advisory to providing practical local knowledge required for decision making, such as which areas are best zoned for which activities. 

• Having the communities involved at this level also helps with policing of the management strategies.