Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area Management Team and Kate Crossing
The Australian Mammal Society is keen to highlight the wonderful work that people and organisations outside of academia are doing in remote areas of Australia. Accordingly, our newest Featured Member isn’t just a single person, but the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area Management Team and Kate Crossing.
Kate Crossing is the Land Management Project Leader at Kiwirrkurra. Her role is to provide support to the IPA team and the Kiwirrkurra Rangers, and she has outlined some of the great work carried out in the area in this Featured Member article. Kiwirrkurra IPA is located within the Gibson and Great Sandy deserts in central and southern WA.
What is your job?
Kiwirrkurra traditional owners dedicated their country as an Indigenous Protected Area in September 2014. The 4.2 million hectare Kiwirrkurra IPA is managed for both environmental and cultural values, in accordance with International Union for the Conservation of Nature guidelines and the Kiwirrkurra IPA Plan for Country
My role is to support Kiwirrkurra Rangers and the IPA Management Team to implement their Plan, which can include activities as diverse as threatened species monitoring, bush tucker research, protecting water places, feral animal and weed control and fire management. I also help engage with partners who can support the Kiwirrkurra people to achieve their vision for looking after people, culture and country.
Tell us about your history
Kiwirrkurra people only encountered white people less than a century ago. People started to move to settlements including Papunya near Alice Springs in the 1960’s. With the advent of the outstation movement in the late 70’s they began the journey west back to their own country. In 1984 they finally realised this dream, with Kiwirrkurra community being set up. In the same year a group of nine Pintupi people still living a traditional life in the area made contact for the first time. Three of those nine are key members of the Kiwirrkurra IPA today, along with many other family members who grew up in the bush. Their deep knowledge of country forms the backbone of the IPA.
I (Kate) grew up on a farm in south-west Western Australia. After studying and working in the geological sciences for a few years, I moved through GIS into Indigenous land management, where I have stayed for the last decade. I am honoured to have learnt so much from the Indigenous people that I’ve worked with, and the staff and scientists who have partnered with them so effectively.
What are your current projects?
We have recently developed a Science and Monitoring Plan which details some of our core strategies and priorities for looking after country, within the broader aims of the IPA Plan. The Science Plan is available here. We are very proud that Kiwirrkurra country hosts a number of healthy Bilby populations, and conserving this iconic species is one of our key priorities. As with all our strategies, we use a “two-way” approach in which traditional knowledge and methods are complemented with scientific knowledge and technologies.
Our approach includes:
- Documenting the beneficial impacts of traditional hunting and burning on Bilby populations near Kiwirrkurra community, and extending similar burning regimes to more remote populations.
- Reducing predation through targeted feral cat control. Expert traditional hunting skills are being passed on to younger generations, and combined with trials of modern technologies.
- Monitoring bilby and predator activity using track-plot monitoring, camera trapping and scat analysis.
What do you consider are some of your best achievements?
Last year, the Kiwirrkurra IPA hosted the first ever Ninu (Bilby) Festival, bringing together over 120 
Indigenous Rangers, scientists, conservation organisations, and other partners to share knowledge and ideas about protecting this iconic species. Pulling off such a big event in the most remote community in Australia made us all feel very proud, as did sharing our knowledge and skills with other groups, and with scientists. From visiting an important bilby tjukurrpa (dreaming) site, to learning about how different groups manage threats such as fire and cats, to demonstrations of drones, DNA analysis techniques and innovative cat traps, the three days were a whirlwind of sharing, learning and laughing together. An exciting moment was seeing on a map just how vital Indigenous Rangers are to protecting the bilby: over 75% of the land that bilbies still live on is owned or managed by Indigenous people. But what made us feel especially happy, is that every participant went home feeling invigorated, part of a supportive network, and proud of the work they do to save the bilby.
You can see a video of the event below or click here.
Do you have an interesting mammal anecdote?
In June last year we were driving back from Lake Mackay, on a rough track which meant we were driving nice and slowly. Suddenly this little golden shape ran across the track in front of us. As I slammed on the brakes, Yalti Napangarti jumped out of the passenger seat calling “Kakarratul”. We clustered round as Yalti held the beautiful creature carefully in her hands, its powerful front feet trying to dig to safety. Kakarratul is the Pintupi name for the elusive marsupial mole (Notorcytes sp.). Walimpirri told us how he'd last seen one many years ago near Kiwirrkurra, and some of the Rangers said they'd never seen one. The ladies pointed out the blind face, and told us they eat scorpions and centipedes amongst other things. After a few minutes of wonder we gently put it down away from the road and watched in awe as it dug straight down and disappeared. We all knew we’d seen something very special. It’s seems the rest of the world thought so too. Within a few weeks of putting the video on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kiwirrkurra), over 3000 people had liked the video, over 200,000 had viewed it, and we’d had requests for interviews from as far afield as America and the UK.
Advice for people interested in Australian mammology
We’re not mammologists but we are passionate about the animals on Kiwirrkurra country. Our advice would be to make connections with the Indigenous custodians of the regions you work in, learn from them and share your own knowledge and passion: there’s so much to gain from two-way partnerships.
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