Kimberley women caring for country together

The publication earlier this year of the Kimberley Indigenous Women’s Ranger Strategy 2024 – 2034 (KIW Ranger Strategy) marks a huge milestone for the collective women’s movement. It is the culmination of many years’ work lead by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC), and captures the voices of over 50 women rangers from across the Kimberley.

It was late September 2022, but already 40 degrees as several hundred women from the Kimberley came together to talk about culture and Country at the at the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre’s (KALACC) Women's Camp on Bardi Jawi Country at Gambanan, on the Dampier peninsula. The Kimberley region has a strong network of women rangers –16 dedicated women’s teams in 2024 – but women are still underrepresented on permanent ranger work-forces, risking women’s knowledge and custodial responsibilities.

Among this group of wise women were about 40 women rangers – leaders in their communities who are employed to look after land and sea Country. They want to see more young women involved, and more women stepping up to be Ranger Coordinators, but there are systemic and cultural factors that stop this from happening. The familiar juggles of working and raising a family is exacerbated by remoteness and a lack of support services. Ranger roles feel out of reach for many Kimberley women. As one of the rangers said “as a woman it can be hard starting as a leader – you need lots of support to deal with family and community, and people trying to bring you down”. The KIW Ranger Strategy is a powerful tool for shining a light on such issues.

Healthy Country Planning felt like the right tool to develop the strategy because many are familiar with the process and everyone could trust it to support participatory processes and community ownership. Over several days at Gambanan we talked about the most important targets and challenges for women rangers, and ideas for how to improve the situation.

A working group of women rangers continued to lead the planning process over many months of online meetings to develop road maps to address the challenges and achieve their goals, as well as indicators to test assumptions and ensure projects are on track. The rangers acknowledge the great contribution women rangers have made and continue to make in caring for country, bringing people back to country and being a source of health and strength to their communities. Some of the women involved are no-longer with us today and we hope that they are proud of what has been achieved.

Kimberley Land Council’s strategy release video/facebook post: https://fb.watch/vZdo8X7QCT/

Strategy available on the Kimberley Land Council website: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59fecece017db2ab70aa1874/t/65d561c6fc73f220b4a73920/1708483041586/Kimberley+Indigenous+Women%E2%80%99s+Rnger+Strategy+SMALL.pdf

Photo courtesy of Kimberley Land Council