Title: Walkers

Entrant: Muru-warinyi Ankkul Rangers at Tennant Creek and Anna Cadden

These photos capture the beginning stages of an Indigenous ecological knowledge project staged between Nonney Creek and Barrow Creek (south of Tennant Creek). The photos show walkers in action, old people sharing stories with young people and young people recording stories onto film. These images can hopefully promote younger people to learn the important things that only their elders know.

Entrant: Ngaanyatjarra Rangers and Gordon Sanders

The picture of the four kids was taken during the second Blackstone walk, organised by Cliff Reid and Thisbe Purich and took place in May this year. We walked from Blackstone community to Wirrnpuyul, camping for ten nights. About 80 people took part in the Blackstone walk, one of the main purposes being to raise awareness of the importance of health and fitness in avoiding diabetes, as well as raise some money for a dialysis machine for Warburton clinic. During the walk the children were taught some traditional dances of the area. These children are being taught the emu dance.

Title: Satellite Trackers
Entrant: Dhimurru Rangers, Gumurr Mathakal Rangers from Galiwinku and Phil Wise

For three years now, Dhimurru and Parks Wildlife Service of the NT staff have tried to attach satellite trackers to Olive Ridley Turtles to learn more about their recovery after they have been entangled in ghost nets. Ghost nets (nets drifting out of control in the sea, often from SE Asia) are a terrible threat to all marine life and the Dhimurru Rangers have worked for years to highlight the threat and clean the beaches. Rangers all around the Gulf of Carpentaria now clean nets from beaches as part of the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Program to reduce the number of turtles and other wildlife that are killed. Knowledge gained from the satellite tracking project may improve the chances of turtles recovering after release from the nets, and will increase knowledge about where they travel to when released. This is another example of Dhimurru combining traditional and scientific knowledge in the both ways approach and of course the beaches that we work on are extremely beautiful, despite the rubbish.

Title: Lirrwa and Quoll
Entrant: Dhimurru Rangers, Gumurr Mathakal Rangers from Galiwinku and Phil Wise

Gumurr Mathakal Ranger Lirrwa is holding a Northern Quoll, caught on Marchinbar Island during surveys looking for another threatened species the Golden Bandicoot. Quolls are in real trouble as they interact with the newest threat to the region - Cane Toads, which poison the quolls when they attempt to eat the toads. The Gumurr Mathakal Rangers have worked extensively with the Parks and Wildlife Service of the Northern Territory to relocate quolls to offshore islands to preserve the species until the threat of Cane Toads are removed. They are also working to relocate Golden Bandicoots to other offshore islands to expand their range and reduce the chance of them disappearing from the NT altogether. Having rangers like Lirrwa show me through amazing places such as Marchinbar Island is truly a treasured experience, as is watching his skill in handling these animals so caringly whilst they try to bite him!

Title: Families and Young People

Entrant: Kaltukatjara Rangers and Richard Brittingham

One of my favourite photos ever!! (The two children playing in the red dirt). This shot was taken whilst travelling from Docker River to Uluru. We stopped to hunt for Tinka (sand goanna) and the kids were playing in the dirt drawing pictures. The two children are Daniel and Ann-Marie they are the children of one of the Rangers that I work with regularly. Our family and theirs have developed a strong friendship over the last few years.

Title: When Traditional Hunting Meets Western Science

Entrant: Bardi Jawi Rangers

The Bardi Jawi Rangers in conjunction with Working On Country (WOC) have begun an extensive research program that focuses on Dugong and Turtle management on Sea country north Broome WA off the Dampier Peninsula in waters earmarked for a major natural gas development plant. In the first month of the WOC program being operational the Bardi Jawi Rangers and a scientist from Edith Cowan University collaborated on a dugong satellite tagging exercise. It is hoped that the information gained will help to gain a better understanding of how these animals behave, where they're feeding and calving and how long they stay in a designated area. So far two dugong have been tagged and they can now be followed utilizing computer software.

Traditional Indigenous knowledge was crucial for the success of this undertaking with elders helping to identify dugong feeding areas and locating animals from the air and on the water. Information about place names was passed on in Bardi language to identify the whereabouts of dugong. This resulted in the chase, capture and release of dugong for scientific research.

Title: The Road Home From Work Friday Afternoon
Entrant: Matt Salmon

The land mark which tells me I'm halfway home from visiting WA projects - only 650 km's to go.

Title: WI Indigenous Protected Area
Entrant: Jenifer Rahmoy

Wadeye: Richard looking out over his father's country. Time stopped as we stood peacefully looking out over the country. We might have been there for 10 minutes or 2 hours. I can clearly recall the tranquillity just looking at this image.