Stories from the Field

A traditional owner and Bardi-Kija-Nyul Nyul man from the Dampier Peninsula of Western Australia, Albert Wiggan is passionate about culture, country and Indigenous science.

The 38 year old is an Indigenous ranger with the Nyul Nyul ranger group and manages the delicate relationship between Western science and Indigenous teachings to preserve the sparkling waters of Boddergron (Cygnet Bay) and the ecologically rich lands across the peninsula and beyond it.

The fantasy of wilderness is a lie. There is no wilderness, but there are cultural landscapes.

Marcia Langton, Ranger Chair of Aboriginal Studies, Northern Territory University

Tom McMurray is a documentary photographer based in Boulder, Colorado and President of Marine Ventures Foundation. His photography has been featured in several conservation campaigns and scientific books. In additional the Foundation has funded a number of documentary films that tell the stories of environmental conservation efforts and the impacts of wealth extraction on ecosystems.

The people of Broome won a significant campaign against a proposed $45 billion project – in April 2013 they stopped the development of a gas plant and port at iconic James Price Point (Walmadan). They had substantial political and corporate interests arrayed against them – the world’s largest multinational oil and gas companies, a determined state government as proponent who deployed police, and changed laws to suit, and a federal government unwilling to intervene.

Andy, Simon and Mark were heading back from Freshwater Cove to Derby and needed fuel for the boat. There was suppose to be a gas drum stored near Raft Point for such situations. It was not to be found but Mark took Andy and Simon to nearby Raft Point to view the Wandjina figures rock at high above the water.

We drove west from Yiyili one evening and encounter massive wildfires burning out of control. There were no humans, no fire trucks, no water tankers. The fires are intentionally set, burn on their own free will until the winter rains put them out. They are called Cool Fires as they are set during the cool winter months in the Kimberley. There is a 30,000 year old reason for this.

We heard of this town called Karratha near Dampier in the Pilbara. A town that represented everything Kimberley people hate and worry about. It is a major oil and gas, iron ore and sea salt complex that shipped 81 million tons of LNG, 861 million tons of iron ore worth $125B plus the largest evaporative salt ponds in the world. When Andy and landed in Karratha we thought we could be in San Francisco or Long Beach where refineries and cargo ships are commonplace. Sorta felt like home to us.

Simon Allen was a key part of the creation and making of the film Keeping Country. On top of being a great scientist, Simon is also a dedicated conservationist, photographer and friend. Simon opened doors for us in the Kimberley and enabled our film to reach deep into communities that would have been otherwise impossible.

Andy Quinn has been an important part of every conservation project that we have funded over the past two decades. He is an incredible filmmaker, deeply passionate about the people and places we work and a good friend. Learn more about Andy at https://www.burlybison.com

We met Mark Jones at the Aarli in the heart of Chinatown in Broome as part of the original Coastal Walkabout Project. Mark was a well know filmmaker and professional crocodile hunter having worked for years with Malcolm Douglas and his massive croc farm outside of Broome. Mark opened doors and took us places we did not know existed for all our filmmaking trips. And we have continued to support his and the aboriginal film projects to document and maintain their way of life in the Kimberley.

Alan Pigram is an Australian musician and songwriter and passionate activist. Based Broome, WA, he was instrumental in the fight against the James Price Point LNG Plant proposed by Woodside on sacred lands North of Broome. We met Alan during that time and he explained country to us and his ancestral heritage.

Coolabah stands next to the snake eggs that during dreamtime the snake came out of the ground and created the stream near his community Yillia in the Kimberley. He added that someone stole one of the snake eggs and was turned into stone and he showed us the bloke's body now a rock.

Any Nuggett is a storied artist and painter who was one of the four women who painted their homeland on the Ngurrara Canvas. During our time in the Kimberley Amy, her daughter Annette and grand daughters took his to her birthplace in the Great Sandy Desert - Purluwala, 150 kilometers South of Fitzroy Crossing. Purluwala is a jila or waterhole located between the sand ridges in the desert. She met her first white person when she was 13 years old having lived deep in the desert. Amy still returns to her jila to speak to the snake and pay her respects to Country.

Our funding dilemma has always been deciding at what stage of the conservation process should we invest. We have funded all three - protect something, defend something or restore it as best you can. Most times we find the restoration projects the simplest to fund and support since the damage is done, many times the villain has left and it just takes time and money to replant a landscape with its natural elements.

When you think of wealth extraction I suspect that gold mining or oil and gas wells covering the countryside. But to better understand this process let’s read the definition first:

Wealth extraction - the process of extracting the most valuable elements of an ecosystem for human benefit at the expense of everything else.

Lines in Country by Tom McMurray Opens at Touchstone Gallery

Washington, DC–Touchstone Gallery presents Lines in Country, a photography exhibition by Tom McMurray. This series of aerial photographs, taken from helicopters over an 18 month period in Northwest Australia, takes inspiration from 30,000 year old rock art and contemporary aboriginal artwork to reflect the underlying majesty of land that is constantly under threat.

Protecting endangered species is a law in the US. The question arises when one species can kill another species to protect a species at risk. Or do we let nature take its course or do we intervene and eliminate the predator? Could be a bird, a shark its predating so we can kill them off to save a species. Protection of endangered species requires humans to decide who lives or dies...

The Colorado River runs 1450 miles from the mountains of Wyoming to the Sea of Cortez south of Mexicali. But the river never reaches the sea. The entire river is diverted at the Morelos Dam and channeled into an irrigation system that feeds a massive agricultural industry.