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Noongar people who are descendants of some of the earliest inhabitants of south-western Australia are learning about the lives their ancestors might have led, with help from a team of archaeologists at The University of Western Australia.

Dr Joe Dortch from UWA is part of an Australian Research Council linkage project to explore the ways Noongar people have changed the landscape over the past 6000 years.

And the group are training Noongar youth to help them unearth artefacts and analyse and document their discoveries. “Already this work is reinvigorating their connections to land and providing them with useful skills,” Dr Dortch said.

“The results will also help in achieving sustainable use of the area’s biodiversity – it is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.”

The first area they are looking at, with input from Indigenous elders and young people, is a tract of about 2500 square kilometres between the Stirling Range and Fitzgerald River National Parks.

Some of the land is in private conservation reserves purchased by Bush Heritage Australia and Greening Australia, who are working together to achieve Gondwana Link, an ecological pathway between the two national parks.

Dr Dortch, his colleagues, students and the Noongar people are helping Gondwana Link groups to identify valuable archaeological sites and improve the cultural and ecological management of their land.

So far they have found many stone implements, lizard traps, quarries and patterns of settlement along creeks, all evidence of human interaction with the landscape over thousands of years.

“Between 10,000 and 50,000 people may have lived here and the south-west environment has been shaped by what they have done,” Dr Dortch said.

“Our students pair up with Noongar youth and share experiences. None of the students had worked with Noongar people and the Noongar trainees are picking up skills they didn’t have before.

“They are discovering how their people managed the landscape through burning practices, resource conservation, ecological knowledge and settlement and subsistence strategies and in the process are finding out about bush foods and gaining pride in their heritage.

“While we have already have funding, we are chasing more so we can increase the size of our training program.

“Some of our formal partners in this project are the Department of Environment and Conservation, the South West Catchments Council, South Coast Natural Resource Management and Bush Heritage Australia and Greening Australia.”

Media references

Dr Joe Dortch 61 8 6488 3946
0428 601 008

Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones 61 8 6488 7977
(UWA Public Affairs) 0420 790 097 / 0420 790 098