Cape York Community visits kick off in the Cooktown Region
I was invited to return to my Grandfather’s country at Archer Point on the Annan River for a Traditional Owner and Junior Ranger camp. We know this country as Yuku-Baja-Muliku (about 30 mins south of Cooktown).
Whilst on country I participated in many traditional customs, had the pleasure of assisting to teach the Junior Rangers various traditional activities such as spear making, grass skirt making, diving for mussel & cooking traditional food.
At the camp I also had the opportunity to discuss Aboriginal Carbon Farming and the work that the Aboriginal Carbon Fund (AbCF) are doing on the Core-Benefits verification framework. This included the roll out of the expression of interest (EOI) to trial the training package developed by the Centre of Appropriate Technologies (CAT) in conjunction with the AbCF and Caritas Australia.
The whole idea of the Indigenous-to-Indigenous strategy and having the power to manage a project by the community is such an important and ground-breaking idea that I feel it is only going to bring positive life changing outcomes for those involved.
Due to sorry business, there weren’t as many people in attendance as had been planned, however for those that were able to attend I feel that the discussion about Aboriginal Carbon Farming and the Core-Benefits was positively received.
One of the Aboriginal Ranger groups I spoke to have decided that they would like to discuss Carbon Farming further and hopefully set up a Carbon Farming project on their traditional estate. This group have also indicated they would like to submit an EOI to receive training for their Rangers to be a part of this great Indigenous-led initiative.
Whilst this was my first time discussing the work that we are doing at the AbCF, it really solidified for me the importance and the need for this long overdue ideology to come to fruition and I for one am very proud to be a part of this movement.
