Wadandi, People of the Sea, are the Custodians for the far southwest region of this continent. With obligations to protect, manage and monitor their Sea Country, a partnership was developed between Wadandi-led project team, Parks Australia and researchers at the University of Western Australia - through the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program’s Marine Biodiversity Hub to map cultural values and use these to guide biodiversity discovery surveys in the established Australian Marine Parks.
The partnership used cultural maps and knowledge to guide the discovery of remarkable biodiversity across submerged ancient coastline features, that document the dynamic history of the region, indicate how these features shape the biodiversity, and provides a benchmark for managing the cultural and natural values of the marine parks into the future.
We will outline the co-design and co-delivery process and lessons learned through our partnership and present a short film documenting the project.