Aboriginal Way

The Indigenous Desert Alliance (IDA) held a significant conference of Elders, rangers, community leaders at Uluru, with over 400 attendees making their way to the biannual event.

The conference celebrated “A Decade of Connection” in reference to the IDA’s past ten years of coordinating these events, with the three-day event running between November 11-14 and containing full-day rosters of workshops.

The IDA was established to facilitate the sharing of lived experience from the vast network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rangers across the desert regions of Australia.

The desert area covered by IDA groups spans over 2,730,000 square kilometres, containing 25 Indigenous Protected Areas, 65 ranger teams and over 78 threatened species.

AW spoke with Arabana head ranger, Zaheer McKenzie, about the conference and several of the important projects that the Arabana ranger program is involved with more widely.

On Wednesday Nov 27, the SA First Nations Voice to Parliament gave its inaugural address to the South Australian Parliament.

The historic address was given in the Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament House, with Presiding Member Leeroy Bilney speaking on behalf of the collective members of the SA Voice.

So far, the Voice has provided feedback on government legislation relating to early childhood development and preventative health, and is set to provide formal contribution to the royal commision into domestic, family and sexual violence.

AW attended the address, asking Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Kyam Maher to interview Mr Bilney following his speech.

We also spoke with Yawarrawarrka man and SA Voice representative, Rob Singleton, about his aspirations for the collective moving forward.

The first-ever cultural tour on Kangaroo Island is now up and running.

Ngarrindjeri Elder Mark Koolmatrie’s tourism company, Kool Tours has teamed up with SeaLink Kangaroo Island for the tour, which will respectfully share the unique culture and history of KI, or Nurrungaui as it is known to the Ngarrindjeri people.

It’s proving to be a year of growth for Kool Tours. The company was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at the South Australian Tourism Awards after winning gold medals there for three years running.

Mark Koolmatrie joined us on Aboriginal Way to tell us all about the new KI tour and Australia’s booming First Nations tourism industry.

Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman Karina Lester has just travelled from the APY Lands to Baku, Azerbaijan for the world’s biggest climate change summit – COP 29.

Along with an Indigenous Australian delegation, the traditional owner will share her community’s concerns and ideas about tackling climate change.

As a second-generation nuclear test survivor, Karina will be advocating against nuclear projects as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Karina Lester is an Aboriginal language expert at the University of Adelaide's Mobile Language Team. In her spare time, she advocates against nuclear projects on Aboriginal lands.