Yaraguia: a Ballardong Noongar family based association preserving biodiversity in the Avon Valley, Western Australia
Résumé
The Avon Valley, situated east of Perth is part of the Wheat Belt, the main agricultural region of Western Australia, and as such has been extensively cleared and farmed. Within the framework of my PhD thesis, I am working with Yaraguia Enterprises Incorporated, a Ballardong Noongar family based association, who is developing a property (Avondale Park) in the Avon Valley. Yaraguia acquired the property in 2006 under the environmental stream of the Land Acquisition Program of ILC (Indigenous Land Corporation). In partnership with Greening Australia Western Australia and the Avon Catchment Council, Yaraguia is focusing on 'healing the country' by developing a fully structured re-vegetation and conservation program as a process of regenerating the property back to its more natural state and restoring part of its original biodiversity. Yaraguia combines contemporary and culturally appropriate processes to fight against salinity and soil erosion and to contribute to the reduction of the greenhouse effects. Yaraguia incorporates European traditional farming practices such as crop growing and grazing sheep, as part of its lease-back agreements, and farm forestry while developing 'non-traditional' farming options such as native rehabilitation and revegetation with the aims of producing bush foods, bush medicines and carbon sequestration as key outcomes for securing environmentally, culturally and economically sustainable land management practices.