This presentation explores long-term adaptive, culturally-grounded partnerships between the Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG) and multiple Traditional Owner (TO) groups across the Burnett Mary region in Queensland. Rejecting a one-size-fits-all model, BMRG has engaged with groups such as Butchulla, Taribelang-Bunda, and Kabi Kabi through co-designed and Country-specific initiatives in freshwater ecosystem management. Activities have ranged from totemic fish research, fish habitat restoration, and fish habitat monitoring to integrating cultural flows and creating TO-led employment pathways.
Central to BMRG’s approach is the understanding that effective ecosystem management must be rooted in place, culture, and relationship. Informal engagements—walking on Country, sitting around fires, and yarning—have proven more impactful than formal consultations, shaping methodologies that respect cultural protocols, governance structures, and aspirations unique to each TO group. The focus has shifted from ‘consultation’ to sustained presence, trust-building, and shared decision-making.
Key innovations stemming from initial engagements include embedding Cultural Condition Assessments into environmental accounts, reframing traditional burning as a tool for landscape health, and initiating co-design processes at the project inception phase. The outcomes of these efforts are measured not just in ecological data, but in trust earned, leadership enabled, and cultural knowledge embedded.
This presentation invites reflection on how organisations can move beyond inclusion toward transformation—where First Nations leadership is central, and Western agencies become facilitators rather than gatekeepers. It challenges practitioners to be bold, patient, and willing to reshape the systems through which we manage freshwater ecosystems.