Environs Kimberley

Despite global recognition of the need to protect and preserve Indigenous knowledge and values in the context of land use change, the extent and significance of these values on Indigenous lands remains not well understood and poorly considered in environmental management and planning. Including Indigenous values in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) may be one way to better ensure that Indigenous values are reflected in government environmental management and planning frameworks and that these frameworks are useful for Indigenous people. To do this, the SEEA must reflect the complex and interconnected values that underpin many Indigenous people’s relationships with land and sea. We use practical examples to illustrate how the SEEA may be adapted to better reflect the cultural values in an Indigenous living cultural landscape using an example from Yawuru Country, in northern Australia. We show how extending ecosystem asset accounts to reflect cultural knowledge and combining the SEEA Central Framework with the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting to develop a novel service to ecosystem account better represents the interconnected relationships between Yawuru People, culture, and Country. To consolidate the recognition of Indigenous values in the SEEA, we recommend establishing a working group under the auspices of the United Nations to share experiences and develop a guidebook “SEEA Indigenous values”. This would promote coordinated and corporative work and improve the relevance of the SEEA.

Until recently, Limosa limosa melanuroides was thought to be the only subspecies of Black-tailed Godwit in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. For this reason, all previous occurrences and counts of Black-tailed Godwits in the flyway have been assigned to melanuroides. However, a larger-bodied subspecies, bohaii, has recently been discovered in the flyway. As a result, the occurrence of Black-tailed Godwits in the flyway needs to be reconsidered such that the specific distribution of each subspecies becomes known. To this end, we developed a simple discriminant function to assign individuals to subspecies based on their bill and wing length. Cross-validation with individuals known to be bohaii or melanuroides, based on molecular analysis, showed the developed function to be 97.7% accurate. When applied to measurements of godwits captured at 22 sites across 9 countries in East–Southeast Asia and Australia, we found that bohaii and melanuroides occurred at most sites and overlapped in their distribution from Kamchatka to Australia. We examined photos from all along the flyway to verify this surprising result, confirming that both subspecies co-occur in most locations. Based on these results, we hypothesise that bohaii and melanuroides from the west of their breeding ranges mostly migrate over Chinese mainland. Birds of both subspecies from the east of their ranges are expected to migrate along the Pacific Ocean. We encourage ringing groups in East–Southeast Asia and Australia to use this simple method to keep adding knowledge about Black-tailed Godwits in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.

Introduction: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease, particularly those in remote areas, when compared with non-Indigenous Australians. While the number of Indigenous Australians requiring kidney replacement therapy has increased over time, rates of kidney transplantation (KTx) in prevalent patients has remained low at 14% compared with 50% in non-indigenous Australians. Methods: The National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce (NIKTT) was established in 2018 in response to the disproportionately low rates of KTx among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. We describe the outcomes of a NIKTT-sponsored initiative developed by the teams at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital and Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service aimed at identifying and addressing modifiable barriers to accessing KTx for Aboriginal Australians with kidney failure in the Kimberley, Western Australia. This remote area which is over 1000 km from the capital city of Perth and spans a vast area of northwest Western Australia caters to the dialysis needs of over 150 Aboriginal Australians. Results: A multi-pronged approach was used. Culturally appropriate KTx education modules were developed for patients and health professionals in close consultation with Aboriginal liaison officers, Aboriginal health service and the members of the newly established Indigenous Reference Groups (IRG) from the region. These materials were utilised during the small group formal education and informal yarning sessions during the Transplant Outreach Clinics. Work is ongoing to create flip-books and posters. Indigenous Reference Groups were formed across the Kimberley region. Three multi-disciplinary Outreach Clinics were conducted in the region, attended by transplant physicians, surgeons and nurses. This resulted in an increase in the number of Aboriginal patients undergoing assessment from 10 to 71, with 23 being approved for transplant suitability. Several patients were identified to have modifiable barriers to transplant work-up. The number of patients active on the transplant waitlist increased from 4 to 12 within a year of outreach visits. To date, 6 patients from the region have successfully received a transplant. Feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive. Conclusion: Improving access to KTx and transplant outcomes for Aboriginal Australians requires a collaborative, holistic and culturally safe approach to the delivery of care. At the core of addressing the inequality in access to kidney transplantation, is the need to effectively communicate, engage and empower the Aboriginal patients and their communities. National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce Equity & Access Sponsorships, Australia.

Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules state that endotherms should be larger and have shorter appendages in cooler climates. However, the drivers of these rules are not clear. Both rules could be explained by adaptation for improved thermoregulation, including plastic responses to temperature in early life. Non-thermal explanations are also plausible as climate impacts other factors that influence size and shape, including starvation risk, predation risk, and foraging ecology. We assess the potential drivers of Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules in 30 shorebird species using extensive field data (>200,000 observations). We show birds in hot, tropical northern Australia have longer bills and smaller bodies than conspecifics in temperate, southern Australia, conforming with both ecogeographical rules. This pattern is consistent across ecologically diverse species, including migratory birds that spend early life in the Arctic. Our findings best support the hypothesis that thermoregulatory adaptation to warm climates drives latitudinal patterns in shorebird size and shape.

Australia’s brutal carceral-border regime is a colonial system of intertwining systems of oppression that combine the prison-industrial complex and the border-industrial complex. It is a violent and multidimensional regime that includes an expanding prison industry and onshore and offshore immigration detention centres; locations of cruelty, and violent sites for staging contemporary politics and coloniality. This article shares insights into the making of a radical intersectional dance theatre work titled Jurrungu Ngan-ga by Marrugeku, Australia’s leading Indigenous and intercultural dance theatre company. The production, created between 2019–2021, brings together collaborations through and across Indigenous Australian, Kurdish, Iranian, Palestinian, Filipino, Filipinx, and Anglo settler performance, activism and knowledge production. The artistic, political and intellectual dimensions of the show reinforce each other to interrogate Australia’s brutal carceral regime and the concept of the border itself. The article is presented in a polyphonic structure of expanded interviews with the cast and descriptions of the resulting live performance. It identifies radical ways that intersectional and trans-disciplinary performances can, as an ‘act of liberation’, be applied to make visible, embody, address, and help dismantle systems of oppression, control and subjugation.

Long‐distance migratory species often include multiple breeding populations, with distinct migration routes, wintering areas and annual‐cycle timing. Detailed knowledge on population structure and migratory connectivity provides the basis for studies on the evolution of migration strategies and for species conservation. Currently, five subspecies of Bar‐tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica have been described. However, with two apparently separate breeding and wintering areas, the taxonomic status of the subspecies L. l. taymyrensis remains unclear. Here we compare taymyrensis Bar‐tailed Godwits wintering in the Middle East and West Africa, respectively, with respect to migration behaviour, breeding area, morphology and population genetic differentation in mitochondrial DNA. By tracking 52 individuals from wintering and staging areas over multiple years, we show that Bar‐tailed Godwits wintering in the Middle East bred on the northern West‐Siberian Plain (n = 19), while birds from West Africa bred further east, mostly on the Taimyr Peninsula (n = 12). The two groups differed significantly in body size and shape, and also in the timing of both northward and southward migrations. However, they were not genetically differentiated, indicating that the phenotypic (i.e. geographical, morphological and phenological) differences arose either very recently or without current reproductive isolation. We conclude that the taymyrensis taxon consists of two distinct populations with mostly non‐overlapping flyways, which warrant treatment as separate taxonomic units. We propose to distinguish a more narrowly defined taymyrensis subspecies (i.e. the Bar‐tailed Godwits wintering in West Africa and breeding on Taimyr), from a new subspecies (i.e. the birds wintering in the Middle East and breeding on the northern West‐Siberian Plain).

BackgroundDespite an increasing number of surveys and a growing interest in birdwatching, the population and distribution of Asian Dowitcher (Limnodromus semipalmatus), a species endemic to the East Asian–Australasian and Central Asian Flyways, remains poorly understood, and published information about the species is largely outdated. In boreal spring 2019, over 22,432 Asian Dowitchers were recorded in a coastal wetland at Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, constituting 97.5% of its estimated global population.MethodsIn 2019 and 2020, we conducted field surveys at Lianyungang to determine the numbers of Asian Dowitchers using the area during both southward and northward migrations. We also assessed the distribution and abundance of Asian Dowitchers elsewhere along the China coast by searching literature and consulting expert opinion.ResultsThe coastal wetlands of Lianyungang are the most important stopover site for Asian Dowitchers during both northward and southward migrations; they supported over 90% of the estimated global population during northward migration in two consecutive years (May 2019 and 2020). This area also supported at least 15.83% and 28.42% (or 30.74% and 53.51% using modelled estimates) of the global population during southward migration in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Coastal wetlands in the west and north of Bohai Bay also have been important stopover sites for the species since the 1990s. Although comprehensive, long-term monitoring data are lacking, available evidence suggests that the population of the species may have declined.ConclusionsThe high concentration of Asian Dowitchers at Lianyungang during migration means the species is highly susceptible to human disturbances and natural stochastic events. The coastal wetlands of Lianyungang should be protected and potentially qualify for inclusion in China’s forthcoming nomination for World Heritage listing of Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase II) in 2023. Additional research is needed to understand Asian Dowitchers’ distribution and ecology, as well as why such a high proportion of their population rely on the Lianyungang coast.