First Nations partnership at Talia: Reconnecting with country through nature restoration
At Land Life’s Talia restoration project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, partnership with the Wirangu and Nauo peoples began at the earliest stages of project development.
First Nations partnership at Talia: Reconnecting with Country through nature restoration
At Land Life’s Talia restoration project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, partnership with the Wirangu and Nauo peoples began at the earliest stages of project development.
Following the acquisition of the property, local First Nations representatives were invited onto the site to help inform how restoration would take place. This included walking the property to identify and document culturally significant areas and ensuring these were considered in the project’s planting plans.
But the partnership has developed into something much broader than consultation around restoration design.
For Wirangu and Nauo people, the project has provided an opportunity to return to Country they had been disconnected from for generations as a result of dispossession. More recently, cultural burning has returned to Talia for the first time in at least a century.
Working alongside the Firesticks Alliance (now The Living Knowledge NetworkOpens in a new tab.), the project has also created opportunities to share cultural fire knowledge and explore how traditional burning practices can support both cultural objectives and ecological restoration.
An important part of this work is ensuring knowledge continues to the next generation. Young Wirangu and Nauo people have participated in cultural burning activities at Talia, while a new Aboriginal Ranger program is expected to create further opportunities for local people to participate in the project's ongoing stewardship.
For Land Life, these experiences reinforce an important lesson for nature and carbon projects: meaningful First Nations engagement needs to begin early and create space for Traditional Owners to shape how projects are designed, managed and used over time.
In the video below, Land Life’s Tim Ferraro reflects on the partnership so far, the return of cultural fire to Talia and what it has meant to see Wirangu and Nauo people reconnecting with Country.
This high-integrity carbon removal ACCU project was developed in partnership with , a subsidiary of Carbon2Nature, the dedicated global nature restoration company of Iberdrola, and its local subsidiary .
