Girringun: the trailblazing Indigenous corporation in North Queensland

Helen Davidson writes in The Guardian (14.5.16) that the report of an independent review of Indigenous protected areas and ranger programs ‘should have been a “free kick” for the Coalition but instead has left the sector worried for its future after the report was quietly published last week without announcement’.

In 2014 Davidson wrote about one of these protected areas, in Queensland, the Girringgun project:  ‘The rangers are from the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation, a trailblazing organisation which is educating and encouraging the next generation to help take care of a unique 1.2m hectare environmental protectorate area.

‘As well as running numerous programs including an arts centre, cultural museum, and community development programs, Girringun co-manages the enormous land and sea area under the region’s first Indigenous protected area agreement (IPA).

‘The mammoth task of protecting a huge area of land and sea, as well as fighting to keep local languages and traditions alive, is all in a day’s work for Girringun’s extraordinary rangers’.

• Glowing review for Indigenous protected areas program »
• Girringun: the Aboriginal corporation in North Queensland »
• Indigenous rangers don’t receive the funding they deserve – here’s why »
• ‘New era’: more than 360,000 hectares of Queensland’s Cape York returned to traditional owners »