Yanunijarra is pleased to be an associate partner of the 10 Deserts Project (10DP) and to have our chief executive, Peter Murray, also serve as the Project’s chair.

10DP, led by the Indigenous Desert Alliance, aims to build the capacity of Indigenous groups to look after country for positive economic, social, cultural and environmental outcomes. It integrates natural resource management best-practice with traditional ecological knowledge to build environmental resilience.

We became involved because we know our country—a unique desert ecosystem—is under increasing threat from several factors, including climate change. It’s expected that we’ll suffer from hotter days across all seasons and altered rainfall patterns, this in turn will have an impact on biodiversity. But we can potentially mitigate some of these impacts through implementing carbon farming and practising right-way fire. The 10DP also focuses on issues such as tourism, feral animals, invasive plants, and the importance of passing on traditional knowledge to our young people.

Yanunijarra’s involvement has allowed us to tap into a network of Indigenous-managed lands—one of the largest in the world! By doing so, we’ve been able to share knowledge, land management strategies and further build the capacity of our ranger team. All of this contributes toward our goal to look after country.

In 2021, our involvement in 10DP allowed us to undertake two important on-country fire trips. In April, the Ngurrara Rangers took twelve Mangala Traditional Owners back to the Mangala side of our native title area to reconnect with country and undertake cultural burning and clearance for the fire season. During this trip three songs and four stories were documented, which will assist with knowledge transfer for younger generations.

In May, our Rangers undertook another trip supported by 10DP out to Kuduarra (Well 46) for biodiversity surveys and burning. Accompanying our eight rangers on the trip were six Walmajarri students, three teachers from Fitzroy Valley High, three Traditional Owners and two coordinators. Both trips helped boost Indigenous employment, facilitated knowledge transfer to the younger generation, and put Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge front and centre.

The engagement of Traditional Owners allowed our Rangers to feel culturally and spiritually safe to carry out work on country. 

As the year progressed, we participated in a two-day ranger workshop in Fitzroy Crossing in November to learn about the ranger development program and to plan out projects that will help build the skills that rangers wish to work on. Key ideas that were discussed included: 

- Ranger led exchange trips
- Cultural mapping using drones
- Getting young men on country  
- Supporting women’s engagement and participation in ranger trips 

Rose and Ronnie then guided us on a Mimbi Caves tour and shared with us their cultural tourism journey. 

Yanunijarra looks forward to working with the Indigenous Desert Alliance on these projects and more in 2022!