Alistair Dermer Manager

Islands of power pride and process

Rangers, Traditional Owners, and Community leaders from three Torres Strait Island Ranger groups (Erub, Mua and Mer Islands) converged on Thursday Island in late October.

The mission - create three Working-on-Country plans in 3 days, for 3 Ranger groups, or as much of them as we could!

Building on our collective experience, following the delivery a similar process we created for the Masigalgal (Masig) Island Rangers earlier in the year, we applied a process that proved to be very successful.

The process, ‘storyboarding’, or for the planners out there, results-chains or program logic. 

Using the agreed themes of Land, Sea and People, we worked in three groups (one room) to identify visions, values, goals, threats, results/objectives and actions.

The material created in the workshop was placed on large laminated boards, and at the end of the workshop, rolled up ready to unroll early next year during community workshops.   In communities, the Rangers will lead the process to review the content, fill in the gaps and complete the prioritisation process for and with each community.

The outcome of this process is that Rangers have learnt to apply the process of ‘storyboarding’ (collecting content for plans of management) and incorporating community aspirations into their annual workplans bringing increased confidence for all.\

A team effort –well done to all participants and facilitators; Melinda McLean & Vic McGrath (Torres Strait Regional Authority), Andre Grant (Centre for Appropriate Technology) and Alistair Dermer (Conservation Management).