The RMMAC Climate Yarning project will support the engagement of RMMAC Board and staff, community members, climate scientists, and ecologists in knowledge sharing to enable a greater understanding of the localised impacts of climate change on First nations people’s culture, community, and the environment. The project will assist participants to identify priorities for action that address the local impacts of climate change.
The River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC) will coordinate engagement with the RMMAC Board and staff, community members, climate scientists, and ecologists to discuss and explore the cultural, community, and environmental impacts of Climate change to the first peoples of the Riverland and Mallee.
The project will host three yarning circles with RMMAC Board members, employees, and community members to discuss the impacts of climate change and identify the community defined priorities. This will allow for actions to be developed within the RMMAC community.
The Yarning Circles will be held in locations on Country to enable increased community engagement and encourage sharing of knowledge that will contribute to the resources developed for community members.
Project description:
The objectives of the yarning circles are to:
- Answer questions about climate change, examine local temperature and rainfall data (1910 to present) and show how to find future climate change projections for specific locations.
- To examine the impact of climate change on the environment, community, and cultural practices.
- Use the Millennium drought for participants to identify important vulnerabilities of their culture and ecology to climate change. Construct a shared list of key vulnerabilities.
In doing this there is an acknowledgement of historical climate change and that aboriginal culture has frequently recorded this. Many stories relating to changes in the landscape refer to events that occurred more than 7,000 years ago, the approximate time at which the sea level reached its present level around Australia. They therefore provide a record of historical climate change and the associated impacts on the landscape.
The Yarning Circles will facilitate discussion on the acceleration of climate change in recent decades and the associated impacts that people have seen to the environment, and how this has impacted on community and cultural practice.
Finally, there is discussion on the future impacts of climate change upon the environment, communities and cultural practice under different climate change scenarios as predicted. The millennium drought is used as an example of dire climatic conditions and to ask community what impacts they observed during the millennium drought and what would be the impact if these conditions were sustained over a longer period of time. The Yarning Circles will provide a range of information and potential actions the community might take to address climate change at local scales.
The Climate Yarning Circles will be recorded in written form and by video to ensure all comments by participants are captured and can be included in the project report. A project report will be developed to record participant comments into the key areas of discussion that occurred at the yarning Circles. A promotional video will be developed using footage from the Yarning Circles and interviews of people who attended.
Cultural knowledge shared within the workshops will be collated by RMMAC and distributed via the final report, with any cultural knowledge identified as sensitive being excluded from the report and video and not made publicly available.
Key achievements and results:
Climate Yarning Circles
This project has now delivered three Climate Yarning Circles in the Berri/Barmera LGA, in partnership with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation, SA Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board and SARDI:
- March 12, 2025- 19 participants
- April 10, 2025- 17 participants
- June 20, 2025- 12 participants
Successful workshops rely on partnerships. The First Nations engagement team of the Department of Environment and Water (DEW) have built a strong relationship with RMMAC. Ecologists from the Murray Mallee Landscape board have a history of working with RMMAC and this relationship is boosted by the First Nations Rangers Program. The Landscape Board ecologists (Grace Hodder and Annie Kriesl) provided background on the Mallee ecosystem and the river ecosystem. Climate change is acting on an already stressed system. The Mallee has been heavily cleared for dryland agriculture and the flows in the river have been ‘Europeanised’ initially for navigation and then for irrigated agriculture.
The SA Drought Hub worked closely with the First Nations engagement team of DEW through initial discussions between the SA Drought Hub knowledge broker, Tony Randall and the subsequent workshops held with Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation. Not only did RMMAC organise the location of Berri Hotel for the two community meetings and the RMMAC board room for the final meeting, RMMAC advised on appropriate dates, arranged the catering, advertising and invitation list. In the third meeting, the most effective discussion on impacts and management for fire risk and protection of significant trees was led by Chris Koolmatrie of the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board.
Further information:
To stay updated on the project, please visit River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC).
Read the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation Climate Change Yarning Circles 2025 report.
Project Images
