Traditional Owner-led planning for Marra and Yanyuwa Sea Country

The li-Anthawirriyarra Rangers and Charles Darwin University have been collaborating on two projects to document the values of Yanywua and Marra Sea Country. We talk about how and why we undertook this work. Consulting with families about cultural places and how Sea Country should be cared for has to be done in the right way. We talk about what culturally appropriate consultation looks like, what we spoke to families about, and what they told us. We also discuss how we are looking to the future in terms of Sea Country management. We are working towards the creation of ‘zones’ to ensure marine users access our Sea Country in a way which protects our cultural and ecologically significant resources into the future. Whilst challenging, we think this is an exciting new approach to Sea Country management which we would like to share with other groups in the NT.