Aboriginal peoples have cared for Country through holistic, relational systems of governance grounded in cultural Law/Lore, kinship and ceremony for thousands of generations. Today, caring for Country practices offer critical insights and capabilities to address contemporary environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards. 

This report describes research undertaken to understand the conditions necessary to support scalable, Aboriginal community-led caring for Country. The research explored the alignment of Aboriginal knowledge and management systems with existing policy and land management structures and identified ways to enable caring for Country practices at a landscape-scale across NSW. 

Through literature review, policy analysis and extensive yarning with Aboriginal Elders, land managers, rangers and community leaders, the research revealed both persistent barriers and substantial opportunities. Barriers included fragmented governance, short-term project funding, policy tokenism and marginalisation of women’s leadership. Aboriginal rights remain under-implemented, and cultural obligations are often excluded from land management frameworks. Despite these barriers, the project highlighted strong community aspirations, cultural resilience and deep place-based knowledge. 

Key recommendations

• Embedding Aboriginal, especially women’s, governance and cultural authority in all levels of decision-making by recognising kinship, obligations and spiritual relationships to Country.
• True reform that acknowledges Aboriginal obligations to care for Country as valid and lawful, not just as symbolic rights.
• Long-term, flexible and culturally grounded funding is also essential to support intergenerational knowledge transfer, cultural and spiritual practice, Aboriginal-defined economic models and holistic wellbeing as integral to caring for Country.