The Indigenous affairs minister’s approach to the ranger program appears to have “nothing to do” with the traditional values at the heart of the program, the head of a leading land council has said.
Nolan Hunter, the chief executive of the Kimberley Land Council, said he did not believe Nigel Scullion “really understands the value that’s been created from the ground up in terms of what the ranger program delivers”.
Hunter was among Indigenous ranger representatives behind an official statement released from the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land and endorsed by the Youth Yindi Foundation, which called on the federal government to “recognise the value that has been created through Indigenous rangers”.
“His views of what he thinks the rangers should be doing, his comments indicate to me that they have nothing to do with the value that’s created by the people on the ground around the values of the ranger programs that is intrinsically linked to Aboriginal peoples customs, beliefs,” Hunter told Guardian Australia at Garma.
The Indigenous ranger program, introduced by the Howard government and funded through the federal government’s Working On Country policy, trains and employs people to care for their traditional country, carrying out land management, weed management, ecological and biodiversity monitoring, and fire management.
“Predominantly the success of the program is based on the fact that there is a link [to] people’s cultural values,” Hunter said.
“The defaults of the projects are related to people connecting to country, their cultural obligations around looking after country, and based in people’s cultural and ecological knowledge.
“The primary objectives of the program … [are] environmental and biodiversity outcomes, but they’ve developed it to a whole lot more.”
Hunter said he believed Scullion “would like to see them as enforcement rangers, and has talked on a couple of occasions about them being the commonwealth’s rangers, and I think this disrespects the notion that the ranger movement is driven from the ground up.”
The statement from Garma said :“the integrity, credibility, respect and reputation of Indigenous rangers is well founded”.
It called for the government approach to Indigenous affairs to be shaped and administered in partnership with Indigenous people.
“At the core of Indigenous advancement is the principle of self-determination, the right to choose our outcomes and what form that takes,” it said.
“Decisions by government to support our people to look after country should uphold the principles that respect our cultural obligations.”
In the lead up to the election the Coalition was the only major party not to provide a commitment on funding – increased or otherwise – of the Working on Country ranger program beyond the end date of 2018.
A leaked draft proposal from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet last month suggested there were considerations around drastically altering the program, including limiting employment terms for rangers to five years. Scullion denied that was being considered.
A concerted campaign from ranger groups, under the banner Country Needs People, called for funds to be doubled and a 10-year commitment to the program to allow for long-term environmental conservation and land management planning.
A spokesman for Scullion said the minister disagreed it was disrespectful to note that ranger funding came from the commonwealth. He acknowledged Nolan’s statements but said there were a “range of views” among ranger groups across the country.
“The minister is keen to work with all ranger groups to develop local opportunities as well as options to strengthen the role and functions of Indigenous rangers,” Scullion’s spokesman said.
“As part of this effort, the minister has introduced a $2m specialised Indigenous ranger programme to strengthen the compliance and enforcement powers of Indigenous rangers. To date, the programme has worked with Indigenous rangers who are improving marine conservation along the far north Queensland coast.”
