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Why is Traditional Owner-led monitoring important?

Traditional Owners’ health has always been closely connected to Country, so monitoring, reporting and watching the trends on Country is something they’ve always done. More recently, Traditional Owners have been working to be recognised for the role they play in the monitoring and management of the Great Barrier Reef and their efforts are now finding success. 

What is Integrated Monitoring and Reporting?

Integrated monitoring and reporting is a system that allows monitoring data to be reported on in real time, usually via a dashboard. It means that the monitoring data, and the ability to report on that data, are integrated into one system. For example, data is collected on a tablet and uploaded automatically to an online database, which allows instant analysis and live data sharing. Such databases can also enable data sharing with the reporting systems of external partners.

“I think scientists are starting to listen and understand that Traditional Owners know what they’re talking about. Scientists are realising that if they work with Traditional Owners, they’re going to get better outcomes.”

– Larissa Hale, Yuku Baja Muliku Traditional Owner

Why do we need the Traditional Owner Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program?

Traditional Owners have been monitoring the health of their people and Country for millennia. This monitoring is about a holistic view of Country where people, culture and Country are deeply connected. Traditional Owner understanding of monitoring is different to definitions used in Western science. It is important that Traditional Owners are in the driving seat, making decisions about their own monitoring and reporting of Country.

The Traditional Owner-led Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program under the Reef Trust Partnership is an opportunity for Reef Traditional Owners to lead the monitoring of their culture and heritage values, as part of the broader Reef Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program (RIMReP).

Realising Traditional Owner monitoring aspirations

The Traditional Owner-led Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program puts Traditional Owners in the driver’s seat to achieve their monitoring aspirations through the Strong Peoples-Strong Country framework.

It recognises that: 

• Traditional Owners have looked after sea Country since time immemorial, and its health and wellbeing is connected with its Peoples’ health and wellbeing
• Traditional Owner culture and heritage is unique and irreplaceable 
• Traditional Owner sacred places including landscapes, sites and areas are part of Lore, traditions, history and current practices 
• Better ways are needed for Traditional Owners to partner with scientists and government agencies 

Design and delivery of a Traditional Owner Monitoring and Reporting Program

First, Traditional Owners designed an Indigenous heritage monitoring framework called Strong Peoples-Strong Country in collaboration with CSIRO and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority under the opening phase of the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program.

This framework is Traditional Owner focused and centred around the monitoring and reporting of their own unique data and stories – in their own way – as they relate to their cultural heritage, priorities and values of the Reef.

Learn more about the Strong Peoples-Strong Country framework. 

Next, Traditional Owners partnered with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, through the Reef Trust Partnership Agreement, to co-design the implementation of the existing Strong Peoples-Strong Country framework.

Implementation includes two approaches:

1. Testing their Traditional Owner-led approach in five communities for the systematic monitoring of the condition of the Reef and its Catchments as an Indigenous heritage asset using the Strong Peoples-Strong Country framework; and

2. Exploring how Traditional Owners then share their localised data with the monitoring and reporting systems that mainstream governments (regulators and management authorities), scientists and researchers already use in the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program.

Data ownership principles and protocols that apply through community governance and agreement-making, as well as data integrity, compatibility and operability, are all important aspects of this work.

Creating benefits at all levels

By combining these two approaches, the data created by the Traditional Owner Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program helps the larger Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program enhance outcomes for the Reef, Traditional Owners and its stakeholders. Furthermore, this collaboration ensures that Traditional Owner perspectives are more prominently recognised and included in broader Reef monitoring and decision-making, and that funding can be secured for future Traditional Owner-led projects.

A new era of working together 

Our communities can be part of this monitoring partnership, starting with pilot projects to try out monitoring using the Strong Peoples-Strong Country framework.

Five pilot projects in participating Traditional Owner communities will: 

• Test new and traditional ways of monitoring and reporting 
• Bring together science, innovation and community 
• Build on all the work Traditional Owners have done before and continue to do  

How monitoring data will be used and shared 

Traditional Owners can use the data collected to inform their own decision-making and plan for their People and Country. The pilot projects will support Traditional Owners to negotiate to share their data with Great Barrier Reef management, researchers and partnering agencies as agreed. 

• This will make sure Traditional Owner values, priorities, and perspectives are reflected in Reef monitoring and reporting to inform management 
• Importantly, Traditional Owner Groups will be supported to protect their data, negotiate how their data will be shared using agreements, and to make sure that only the data they want to share will be shared with others