Braedan Taylor – The Conversation

Great Sandy Desert, Ngurrara Country. S. Legge/Yanunijarra AC

October 10, 2024

A patchwork of spinifex: how we returned cultural burning to the Great Sandy Desert

Braedan Taylor, Indigenous Knowledge; Jacqueline Shovellor, Indigenous Knowledge; James (Frankie) McCarthy, Indigenous Knowledge; Sarah Legge, Australian National University, and Thomas Nnarda, Indigenous Knowledge

In the 1940s, RAAF planes took aerial photographs of the Great Sandy Desert, capturing something valuable: the patterns of burning performed by our ancestors over generations.

Kiwirrkurra Traditional Owner Yukultji Napangati sharing tracking knowledge with ecologist Rachel Paltridge. Nicolas Rakotopare

September 26, 2024

Reading desert sands – Indigenous wildlife tracking skills underpin vast monitoring project

Sarah Legge, Australian National University; Braedan Taylor, Indigenous Knowledge; Jaana Dielenberg, Charles Darwin University; Pius Gregory, Indigenous Knowledge, and Rachel Paltridge, The University of Western Australia

Footprints, droppings, diggings and other signs left behind by animals reveal a lot to a skilled observer. Indigenous knowledge feeds into one of Australia’s largest wildlife monitoring endeavours.

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