Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Accept Deny

GoGreenNation news

Analysis-Australian Mine Fight Reignites Aboriginal Heritage Tensions

News Feed
Tuesday, October 1, 2024

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Wiradjuri elder Nyree Reynolds calls her home west of Sydney the valley of the Bilabula, the Indigenous name for its river. The river features in Wiradjuri stories about the creation of their land, she told state planning regulators, "And no one has the right to destroy this."On her objections, the Australian government in August ordered miner Regis Resources to find a new dam site for a A$1 billion ($685 million) gold project on the grounds its proposed location for storing rock and chemical waste would irreparably harm culture attached to the river.The decision by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek under a rarely used Aboriginal heritage protection law has stoked an outcry from mining groups who say Regis followed all legal processes and the decision raises sovereign risk for developers.The government's action adds to the uncertainty miners have faced since iron ore giant Rio Tinto legally destroyed ancient Aboriginal rock shelters at Juukan Gorge four years ago and raises the urgency to overhaul heritage protection laws.At least three other resources projects are facing review, like Regis did, under Section 10 of the law that allows Aboriginal people to apply to protect areas important to them when other legal avenues have failed."You can get all the state environmental approvals, all the federal environmental approvals and at the end of the process a Section 10, ... essentially a federal minister can ... make your project unviable," said Warren Pearce, CEO of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies. "That's the definition of sovereign risk."While Reynolds objected to Regis' mine, a local Aboriginal group representing Wiradjuri people, authorised by the state to speak for cultural heritage, had concluded that impacts from the project could be managed.Regis said in August it is considering its legal options after writing down the value of its project by more than $100 million.The decision on Regis' project was the second by the government in as many months to back Indigenous groups over miners.ERA, majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, is suing the government on procedural fairness grounds after it did not renew the miner's exploration lease on uranium rich land.Government officials and some investors say developers need to engage earlier and more deeply with Indigenous groups when planning projects, but new laws governing heritage protection that would assist the process are yet to arrive.The government has not said when it expects to finalise the legislation. Only Western Australia has made some heritage reforms, leaving the industry relying on a patchwork of old state legislation to manage heritage protection at a time when Australia is marketing itself as a supplier of ethical metals.Resources projects with outstanding Section 10 objections include miner Bellevue Gold's plan to dig under a desert lake and Woodside's Scarborough natural gas project that will feed a gas plant in a region rich in ancient rock art that the government has nominated for a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Both projects are in Western Australia.But not all objections are equal when it comes to politics, especially with the centre-left Labor government facing an election in 2025.Woodside is unlikely to face the same setback as Regis, said MST Marquee senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic, as the $12.5 billion Scarborough gas project is "extremely politically important to the Labor government in Western Australia".Plibersek's office said it could not comment on the Scarborough project as the issue is under consideration.Both Woodside and Bellevue said they take their responsibilities to manage Aboriginal cultural heritage seriously.Bellevue said it has permission from the Tjiwarl native title group to dig under the lake as part of a heritage management plan.The government's action comes after it failed in a referendum last year that sought to give Indigenous Australians special recognition in the country's constitution and an advisory voice to lawmakers.Some people think the government is now acting to appease inner city east coast voters who backed the referendum and who may want to vote for the Greens rather than support mining."Here is a government trying to scramble to make itself look good, because it absolutely gutted the opportunity for us to have a voice in Parliament," said Wonnarua man Scott Franks, who has filed three section 10s against developments in the state's coal rich Hunter Valley region and lost them all.When asked if she was catering to Green voters with her decision on Regis, Plibersek told reporters on Aug. 28 that she had consulted widely: "I made the decision based on facts."Australia's minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said the government was working hard with Aboriginal groups on new heritage protection laws."The Australian Government is deeply concerned about the destruction of First Nations heritage values anywhere in Australia," McCarthy said in a statement to Reuters.A key issue that needs to be addressed is to make clear exactly who developers need to consult to ensure projects do not harm important sites on the traditional lands or countries of Indigenous groups."Our whole objective is to remove this sort of uncertainty that people are dealing with to make it clear who speaks for the Country," Plibersek told Australian Broadcasting Corp on Aug. 28.Regis said it had consulted with 13 different groups and individuals during the permitting process."Regis takes its relationship with the Aboriginal stakeholders at our operations very seriously and conducted extensive engagement with Aboriginal parties from an early stage in the approvals process," it said in a statement to Reuters.To help miners manage consultations on protecting Aboriginal heritage while the rules are revised, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia, which counts 75% of the country's institutional investors as members, worked with First Nations, the government and mining giant BHP on best practices."The current laws remain inadequate, which is why we need investors and corporates themselves to step up," the association's co-CEO, Estelle Parker, said.Among its recommendations, the association urges miners to adhere to free, prior and informed consent that can be withdrawn at any time.The guide is "ambitious and probably unrealistic", law firm Ashurst said in a 2024 report, but it advised miners to get familiar with it."Be aware that change will come to Federal heritage laws. When it does, it will be closer to the expectations expressed in these recent publications than the current legal framework."($1 = 1.4601 Australian dollars)(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Sonali Paul)Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

By Melanie BurtonMELBOURNE (Reuters) - Wiradjuri elder Nyree Reynolds calls her home west of Sydney the valley of the Bilabula, the Indigenous name...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Wiradjuri elder Nyree Reynolds calls her home west of Sydney the valley of the Bilabula, the Indigenous name for its river. The river features in Wiradjuri stories about the creation of their land, she told state planning regulators, "And no one has the right to destroy this."

On her objections, the Australian government in August ordered miner Regis Resources to find a new dam site for a A$1 billion ($685 million) gold project on the grounds its proposed location for storing rock and chemical waste would irreparably harm culture attached to the river.

The decision by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek under a rarely used Aboriginal heritage protection law has stoked an outcry from mining groups who say Regis followed all legal processes and the decision raises sovereign risk for developers.

The government's action adds to the uncertainty miners have faced since iron ore giant Rio Tinto legally destroyed ancient Aboriginal rock shelters at Juukan Gorge four years ago and raises the urgency to overhaul heritage protection laws.

At least three other resources projects are facing review, like Regis did, under Section 10 of the law that allows Aboriginal people to apply to protect areas important to them when other legal avenues have failed.

"You can get all the state environmental approvals, all the federal environmental approvals and at the end of the process a Section 10, ... essentially a federal minister can ... make your project unviable," said Warren Pearce, CEO of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies. "That's the definition of sovereign risk."

While Reynolds objected to Regis' mine, a local Aboriginal group representing Wiradjuri people, authorised by the state to speak for cultural heritage, had concluded that impacts from the project could be managed.

Regis said in August it is considering its legal options after writing down the value of its project by more than $100 million.

The decision on Regis' project was the second by the government in as many months to back Indigenous groups over miners.

ERA, majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, is suing the government on procedural fairness grounds after it did not renew the miner's exploration lease on uranium rich land.

Government officials and some investors say developers need to engage earlier and more deeply with Indigenous groups when planning projects, but new laws governing heritage protection that would assist the process are yet to arrive.

The government has not said when it expects to finalise the legislation. Only Western Australia has made some heritage reforms, leaving the industry relying on a patchwork of old state legislation to manage heritage protection at a time when Australia is marketing itself as a supplier of ethical metals.

Resources projects with outstanding Section 10 objections include miner Bellevue Gold's plan to dig under a desert lake and Woodside's Scarborough natural gas project that will feed a gas plant in a region rich in ancient rock art that the government has nominated for a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Both projects are in Western Australia.

But not all objections are equal when it comes to politics, especially with the centre-left Labor government facing an election in 2025.

Woodside is unlikely to face the same setback as Regis, said MST Marquee senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic, as the $12.5 billion Scarborough gas project is "extremely politically important to the Labor government in Western Australia".

Plibersek's office said it could not comment on the Scarborough project as the issue is under consideration.

Both Woodside and Bellevue said they take their responsibilities to manage Aboriginal cultural heritage seriously.

Bellevue said it has permission from the Tjiwarl native title group to dig under the lake as part of a heritage management plan.

The government's action comes after it failed in a referendum last year that sought to give Indigenous Australians special recognition in the country's constitution and an advisory voice to lawmakers.

Some people think the government is now acting to appease inner city east coast voters who backed the referendum and who may want to vote for the Greens rather than support mining.

"Here is a government trying to scramble to make itself look good, because it absolutely gutted the opportunity for us to have a voice in Parliament," said Wonnarua man Scott Franks, who has filed three section 10s against developments in the state's coal rich Hunter Valley region and lost them all.

When asked if she was catering to Green voters with her decision on Regis, Plibersek told reporters on Aug. 28 that she had consulted widely: "I made the decision based on facts."

Australia's minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said the government was working hard with Aboriginal groups on new heritage protection laws.

"The Australian Government is deeply concerned about the destruction of First Nations heritage values anywhere in Australia," McCarthy said in a statement to Reuters.

A key issue that needs to be addressed is to make clear exactly who developers need to consult to ensure projects do not harm important sites on the traditional lands or countries of Indigenous groups.

"Our whole objective is to remove this sort of uncertainty that people are dealing with to make it clear who speaks for the Country," Plibersek told Australian Broadcasting Corp on Aug. 28.

Regis said it had consulted with 13 different groups and individuals during the permitting process.

"Regis takes its relationship with the Aboriginal stakeholders at our operations very seriously and conducted extensive engagement with Aboriginal parties from an early stage in the approvals process," it said in a statement to Reuters.

To help miners manage consultations on protecting Aboriginal heritage while the rules are revised, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia, which counts 75% of the country's institutional investors as members, worked with First Nations, the government and mining giant BHP on best practices.

"The current laws remain inadequate, which is why we need investors and corporates themselves to step up," the association's co-CEO, Estelle Parker, said.

Among its recommendations, the association urges miners to adhere to free, prior and informed consent that can be withdrawn at any time.

The guide is "ambitious and probably unrealistic", law firm Ashurst said in a 2024 report, but it advised miners to get familiar with it.

"Be aware that change will come to Federal heritage laws. When it does, it will be closer to the expectations expressed in these recent publications than the current legal framework."

($1 = 1.4601 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Sonali Paul)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Related News

Reading desert sands – Indigenous wildlife tracking skills underpin vast monitoring project

Footprints, droppings, diggings and other signs left behind by animals reveal a lot to a skilled observer. Indigenous knowledge feeds into one of Australia’s largest wildlife monitoring endeavours.

As animals move across the desert, they leave tracks, diggings and droppings. For skilled trackers, reading these signs is like watching a movie. A story of who was there and what they were doing unfolds in front of them. In this way, many Indigenous Australians know where the goannas (jalangardi in Yawuru) are fat and abundant, when bilby (jitartu in Karajarri) burrows are occupied, and whether the bush turkeys (parrkara in Karajarri) have arrived to take advantage of a freshly burnt patch. For many years, scientists have been working with Indigenous people in the desert to record these observations in a systematic way. Taking a standard approach enables comparisons between data from different people, times and places, so trends can be detected. Our new research collates almost 49,000 animal detections during 15,000 surveys at more than 5,300 sites, since 1982. This unique data set reveals new information about desert species. Monitoring animal numbers, locations and responses to environmental change is vital for guiding efforts to support their survival. This video features reflections from people involved in the Arid Zone Monitoring project, including authors Sarah Legge and Braedan Taylor. (Threatened Species Recovery Hub). Monitoring desert wildlife is a skill It’s not always easy to see animals in the desert. Most are nocturnal, secretive, and spend much of their time underground. Numbers can fluctuate widely, dwindling during droughts and booming after rain. This means we need to collect a lot of data — over a long time and over a vast area — to tell what is going on. Fortunately, Indigenous Australians continue to inhabit and look after desert landscapes using deep knowledge of their Country and exceptional observational skills. Our deserts contain one of the largest networks of Indigenous-managed land in the world. The Arid Zone Monitoring Project combines Traditional ecological knowledge and tracking skills with scientific analysis. Indigenous rangers and Traditional Owners from 33 different Indigenous desert groups are involved, along with government agencies, non-government organisations and independent scientists. It’s one of Australia’s largest wildlife monitoring endeavours, spanning nearly half of the country. More than 5,300 unique sites are spread across deserts with various types of Indigenous land tenure and management. The project area boundary follows regional boundaries based on geology and ecology. Sarah Legge Fresh insights The standard approach is to search a 2-hectare area for signs of animals with at least two people for 20 minutes. One of us, Braedan Taylor, has performed many dozens of these sign-based surveys. He says: “Within these areas we look for scats (poo), burrows, tracks and record everything that we find.” The observations are recorded on various apps or paper record sheets. The method has been widely embraced by Indigenous ranger teams. But, until now, the data has generally stayed within those teams. By bringing all of the data together for analysis, our research has revealed fresh insights into desert wildlife. We now know more about where species occur and their preferred habitats. We found some species in places where they were not thought to exist before. For example, it turns out the range of the great desert skink (tjakura in Wiluna Martu Wangka) extends further southwest in Martu Country than previously thought. This chunky, group-living reptile is culturally important to Indigenous people. While local people knew of its presence, sharing that knowledge helps conserve this threatened species. Learn how to track Tjakura (great desert skink) and see how rangers and custodians are monitoring and caring for this threatened, culturally significant species. (Indigenous Desert Alliance) In the northwestern deserts, Yawuru Country managers and Karajarri rangers recorded many observations of spectacled-hare wallabies (manggaban in Yawuru). This species had not been detected in the region for more than a decade. One of us, Pius Gregory, worked with his countrymen, using careful observation of scats (poo) to distinguish this species from two other wallaby species of similar size (northern nailtail wallabies, agile wallabies; garrabulu, barrjaniny). Analysing the data has also improved our knowledge of where pest species occur and how they may be affecting native wildlife. For example, we found bilbies have been lost from 70% of their former range, contracting to the northwest deserts where fox density is lowest. Feral cat numbers are also higher here, perhaps also due to fewer foxes. Some species leave more tell-tale signs Better monitoring can help ranger teams evaluate their programs to control fires and feral animals. The data can also help determine the conservation status of threatened species, and whether it’s improving or declining. Species detection rates, locations and habitat preferences can also inform future monitoring programs. This includes guiding where and how often to survey, to detect population changes for various species. Overall, we found sign-based surveys are great for monitoring 28 species of mammals, reptiles and birds – including threatened, invasive and culturally significant species. This includes game species that are important to desert people such as kangaroo (mirtimarlu in Karajarri), emu (bijarda in Yawuru) and bush turkey (bustard, barrgara in Yawuru). We found a national monitoring program for these 28 species would only require visiting 600 strategically located sites twice every five years. Each team involved in the monitoring would need to survey only 10–20 sites a year. We identified a further 48 species in the records, but found sign-based surveys may not be the best way to monitor them. This is either because detections are too few, or their sign is hard to identify. For some of those species, extra training by expert trackers may make a difference. For example, the tracks of red kangaroo, euro and grey kangaroo are hard to distinguish for inexperienced trackers, as are perentie, yellow-spotted and sand goanna tracks. Emu, dingo, echidna, and sand goanna tracks – and bilby scats. Arid Zone Monitoring project. See images for individual attributions. Potential for the future The Arid Zone Monitoring Project was a proof of concept that showed how much monitoring is already being done by rangers. It also shows the potential for a desert-wide monitoring program, in which Indigenous-led data collection is paired with logistic, analytical and funding support. Such a program could provide information on biodiversity trends over 40% of the country. This would help inform invasive animal control programs, as well as Indigenous-led recovery strategies for threatened species and culturally significant species. Sign-based monitoring gives elders and senior rangers an opportunity to share information and skills. This extends beyond tracking, to language, stories, and all aspects of cultural and ecological knowledge. Pius and Braedan can’t overstate how important this is – sign-based surveys are a great way to get out on Country and learn. The wellbeing of Indigenous Australians is inseparable from the wellbeing of Country: (“healthy Country, healthy people”). Effective monitoring, with strong Indigenous engagement, is a essential for looking after the plants, animals and people of Australia’s desert Country. We sincerely acknowledge the many people who contributed to this research. Bustard tracks across a dune on Anangu Country. Bustards, or bush turkeys, are a culturally significant game species. Jaana Dielenberg / Biodiversity Council Sarah Legge received funding from the National Environmental Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub for the project described here. In related work, she receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and from the Australian Government's Innovative Biodiversity Monitoring for biodiverisity monitoring with Indigenous organisations. She is a member of the Biodiversity Council.Braedan Taylor worked for the Karajarri Rangers, Karajarri Traditional Lands Association during this project. He's now studying Marine Science at the University of Western Australia.Jaana Dielenberg was a collaborator on the Arid Zone Monitoring project, which was funded by the now-ended Threatened Species Recovery Hub of the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program. She is a Charles Darwin University Fellow and is employed by the University of Melbourne and the Biodiversity Council.Pius Gregory is a Yawuru Traditional Owner. He worked previously for Nyamba Buru Yawuru as a Country Manager, looking after desert and sea country. He is now employed by WWF as the Biocultural Conservation Specialist based in Broome.Rachel Paltridge was employed by various Indigenous organisations to assist rangers collect track plot data during the period 2000-2020. She now works as an ecologist with the Indigenous Desert Alliance, with support from the Resilient Landscapes Hub of the National Environmental Science Program and also receives funding from the Australian Government's Saving Native Species program. She is an adjunct Senior Research Fellow with the University of Western Australia.

Indigenous
Animals
Government

‘Breakthrough discovery’: Indigenous Rangers in outback WA find up to 50 night parrots – one of Australia’s most elusive birds

Urgent action is now needed to protect these vulnerable populations and ensure the night parrot doesn’t become extinct.

In arid inland Australia lives one of Australia’s rarest birds: the night parrot. Missing for more than a century, a live population was rediscovered in 2013. But the species remains elusive. Until recently, Australia’s known night parrot population numbered in the tens of birds, scattered across desert in Queensland and Western Australia. But our research team – consisting of Indigenous rangers and scientists – has made a breakthrough discovery. We’ve detected the largest known night parrot population in the world: perhaps as many as 50, living in WA’s Great Sandy Desert, on land managed by the Ngururrpa people. Our results are published today. Urgent action is needed to protect these vulnerable populations and ensure the night parrot doesn’t go missing a second time, perhaps for good. The night parrot lives in arid inland Australia. Pictured: an 1890 illustration by Elizabeth Gould. Wikimedia, CC BY A highly mysterious species The night parrot was once found throughout Australia’s arid inland, but its numbers plummeted in the late 19th century. The bird was not definitely recorded for more than 100 years, until a dead bird was found near Boulia in western Queensland in 1990. Another dead bird was found in Diamantina National Park, also in western Queensland, in 2006. In 2013 a small population was found by naturalist John Young in south-western Queensland. That area is now a wildlife reserve. Night parrots are notoriously difficult to detect. They build tunnels in dense spinifex and hide there by day, emerging at night to forage. They are known only from populations in remote south-west Queensland and central and northern Western Australia. The species is critically endangered. In Western Australia, Indigenous cultural knowledge about the species includes stories about how difficult the bird is to find. There are also whispered stories of mothers telling children the night parrot’s call was the sound of an evil spirit, and warning them not to stray from camp. A short video explaining the night parrot project. What we did The Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area is in the Great Sandy Desert. It comprises vast areas of sandplains and dunefields, and smaller areas of floodplain and spinifex which are key night parrot habitats. The researchers recorded night parrots using ‘songmeters’. Ngururrpa Rangers/Facebook Ngururrpa Rangers worked with scientists to learn how to use sound recorders to search for night parrots. We then searched for the birds on Country between 2018 and 2023. We combined the rangers’ detailed knowledge of habitats, water and seed resources with geology maps, satellite imagery and fire history data. From this we selected 31 potential roosting areas, then deployed sound recorders called “songmeters” at those sites. We wanted to detect the night parrots’ distinctive calls which consist of whistles, croaks and bell-like sounds. The acoustic data we gathered was then analysed to extract any bird calls in the night parrot’s frequency range. Potential detections were verified using a reference library of known night parrot calls. Our results We detected night parrot calls at 17 of 31 sites. Of these, ten were roost sites, where night parrot calls were detected in the hour after sunset and the hour before sunrise. Individual night parrots are thought to have unique calls. We analysed how many different calls we could hear, and how loud they were (which can tell us when birds are calling from different locations). From this we built a picture of the identity and number of individuals regularly occupying a site. We extrapolated this across the 58 patches of potential night parrot habitat on the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area. We concluded up to 20 roosting areas may be occupied by night parrots. Based on the numbers at roosting sites where we recorded calls, we estimate 40–50 night parrots could be present in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area. Fire and predators pose grave threats Once we found the night parrot populations, we wanted to know what threats they faced. We used camera-traps to identify predators and also collected their scats (poos) to analyse their diets. Ngururrpa Ranger Kathryn Njamme with a night parrot feather. Ngururrpa IPA Dingoes were the predator detected most frequently in night parrot roosting habitat. Our cameras captured them ten times more often than feral cats. And we found dingoes regularly eat feral cats at night parrot sites. Based on information from other areas, we suspect cats are a key predator of night parrots. Dingoes could be important in suppressing cat numbers and helping the parrots survive. So, attempts to limit predators in night parrot habitat should not harm dingoes. We also analysed 40 years of satellite imagery to assess the threat of fire to night parrots’ roosting habitat. Based on the vegetation types and flammability of surrounding landscapes, we found bushfires sparked by lightning are a much bigger threat to night parrots in the Great Sandy Desert than in Queensland. Strategic aerial and ground burning, to reduce fuel loads, already occurs in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area. As our knowledge of night parrots improves, these programs can become more targeted to protect key night parrot areas. Ngururrpa Rangers using ‘Felixer’ devices to selectively control cats in night parrot habitat. Ngururrpa IPA Keeping night parrots alive A long-term monitoring program for night parrots on Ngururrpa Country should be established to help better understand and protect this vitally important population. And the remote, wild nature of the landscape should be retained. This means minimising disturbance from people and vehicles, and continuing to exclude livestock and weeds. Clifford Sunfly has articulated how the rangers want to help protect night parrots into the future: We would like to spend more time on Country to find where [night parrots] are and understand what they are doing. We want those scientists to come and help us catch some night parrots and tag them. We also need more snake-cams (inspection cameras) too and more songmeters. And a kit for collecting scats for DNA. One day we would love to have our own research facility for doing our night parrot surveys. It would be our dream to have our own research base on Ngururrpa. Rachel Paltridge receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program's Resilient Landscapes Hub, and the Indigenous Desert Alliance.Clifford Sunfly is a Ngururrpa Ranger. The ranger program receives funding from the WA government's Aboriginal Ranger Program and the State NRM Program. Nicholas Leseberg receives funding from the Australian and Queensland Governments. He works for Bush Heritage Australia, and as a consultant on night parrots for many projects.

Indigenous
Government
Science

How Century-Old Paintings Reveal the Indigenous Roots and Natural History of New England Landscapes

Seven guest collaborators bring new eyes to a Smithsonian museum founder’s collection of American art

When industrialist Charles Lang Freer donated his art collection to the Smithsonian in 1906, he specified that the institution could neither lend out any pieces from it nor accept any lent artwork from other places to include in it. While he later adjusted his will to allow for new discoveries that might make it prudent to expand the collection of approximately 7,500 pieces of mostly East Asian art that he was donating, curators for the last century have operated with the understanding that he never meant for the American portion of his bequest—about 1,500 works—to grow. His American art collection now resides at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, which opened as the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923, four years after Freer’s death. “This collection is essentially frozen in amber,” says Diana Greenwold, the museum’s curator of American art. That makes the task of recontextualizing the work for new audiences more than a century after Freer’s death a daunting challenge. “I don’t have the option of buying into the collection,” Greenwold says. “I don’t have the option of commissioning a contemporary artist.” But while Greenwold and her fellow curators can’t borrow paintings for the museum’s American collection, there’s nothing in Freer’s bequest that stops them from borrowing additional pairs of eyes. For the museum’s exhibition “Shifting Boundaries: Perspectives on American Landscapes,” which opened this summer and closes in July 2026, Greenwold wanted to demonstrate how painters Willard Metcalf, Dwight Tryon, Winslow Homer and Abbott Thayer, among others, captured scenes of nature that appeared to be tranquil and unchanging but were in fact in flux. To identify works from the collection worth highlighting, the museum recruited seven collaborators, the majority of whom bring expertise from disciplines outside of art history. They have substantial aptitudes “in environment, in landscape, in botany, in particular approaches to New England landscapes,” Greenwold says. The panel looked at roughly 70 landscapes and seascapes from Freer’s American art collection, ultimately agreeing on a selection of 11 paintings and three works on paper that held a particular resonance for the group, several of which have long been out of view to the public. The collaborators then wrote labels for the objects they chose and worked with the museum team to edit them. Photographs of the collaborators who wrote each label are included alongside the text, an indicator of just how subjective a process this was—by design. For example, Stephanie Toothman, a collaborator who is now retired from the National Park Service, wrote about Early Evening, a scene featuring two women gazing out at the Maine coast that Winslow Homer painted in 1881, then reworked in 1907. Toothman writes that the painting calls to mind her grandmother’s family who lived on the coast of Nova Scotia. Toothman even shared a photo of her grandmother and a friend circa 1918, which is reproduced in miniature on the label for Early Evening. Another collaborator who shared a personal document to help contextualize her appreciation of these paintings is Elizabeth James-Perry, an Aquinnah Wampanoag artist and writer who has a degree in marine science. James-Perry’s 2021 painting Bear Map, a depiction of the regional landscape in the shape of a bear, is on display. Mashq/Bear Decolonized Map, Elizabeth James-Perry, digital scan of watercolor and graphite on paper, 2021 Amherst College Archives & Special Collections / Courtesy of Elizabeth James-Perry “She calls it a decolonized map,” Greenwold says. “What you’re seeing here is the landscape of New England. She sees the body of a bear in that—which is beautiful—but rather than offer our visitors the state demarcations, so you can tell where New Hampshire starts and Vermont ends, what we have here are all Indigenous names for different mountains or for different regions.” In this way, James-Perry points out that many of the places the American artists whose work Freer collected are to this day known by names drawn from Indigenous languages, even though the communities that spoke those languages had been driven from their native lands. New Hampshire’s Mount Monadnock, as James-Perry writes for Thayer’s 1912 painting Monadnock No. 2, “likely means ‘abundant land’ in the Wampanoag and Abenaki languages.” James-Perry concludes by asking, “What is the fascination with tribal names for landmarks when Indigenous people who long resided here and possess the knowledge and connection to the land are not given much thought?” Monadnock No. 2, Abbott Handerson Thayer, oil on canvas, 1912 National Museum of Asian Art Full-time curators “tend to gravitate toward favorites,” Greenwold says. This group “had none of that baggage.” She was particularly pleased that this process resulted in the selection of Albert Pinkham Ryder’s The Red Cow, circa 1870. “We don’t show this one very often because it’s little and it’s strange and it’s hard to see,” she says. The supposition had been that Freer acquired the oil painting because its warm texture was suggestive of ceramics, which he loved. But collaborator Lorette Picciano of the Rural Coalition responded to the painting’s content rather than its form, considering the cow as both “an immigrant from Europe” and a harbinger of the coming industrialization of our food supply. “Pasteurization and refrigeration will make her milk safe to ship to urban centers to meet growing demand,” Picciano writes. “Though she came as an immigrant herself, will she be pushed to her limit to sustain newer arrivals? How will she feel about milking machines?” Picciano “has this whole context of labor and agriculture and animal husbandry that she brings to this that I would never have seen,” Greenwold says excitedly. “It’s not a connection I would’ve made.” Sometimes more than one collaborator had a response to a painting that was strong and distinct enough to warrant commentary. Dwight William Tryon’s dreamy 1912 painting of thin trees, Twilight: November, gets comments from both ecologist Dennis Chestnut and Lauren Brandes of Smithsonian Gardens. Chestnut, in his exhibition label, praises the way Tryon captured “the unique time of day that can be described as Almost. Almost the end of daylight. Almost evening just before night.” Twilight: November, Dwight William Tryon, oil on wood panel, 1912 National Museum of Asian Art Brandes, who brought more than 20 years of experience as a landscape architect to the “Shifting Boundaries” project, was unfamiliar with Tryon’s work before the invitation came to collaborate on the exhibition. Initially, she recalls, it was the “mysterious quality” of the colors that drew her to Twilight: November. But as she contemplated the painting more deeply, she began to reflect on what she wasn’t seeing. “If you think about seeing trees out in the woods versus a tree that grows in a park, a tree that grows in a park has a really, really big canopy, because there’s no pressures on it from other trees around it,” Brandes says. “And so, it can really grow to its full width. Whereas trees that grow in a forest are much smaller, and much skinnier, and have a much smaller canopy.” To Brandes, the painting’s landscape featuring slim trees is “an indication of a forest that used to be there.” “A lot of the trees were cleared, and the other shrubs and plant material were all taken away,” she says. “And what’s left are these kind of skinny trees that feel almost a little bit out of place now; they’re kind of exposed. And so, it started to make me think more about what else has been lost there. What kinds of animals or insects or other plants, the whole ecosystem that existed there in a forest? So even though it seems on the surface it’s very serene, I started to think about it in a way with a sense of loss for natural habitat.” The youngest member of the panel, 21-year-old climate activist and White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council member Jerome Foster II, chose Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s The Lute (1904) as one of his subjects, writing that “this seemingly tranquil painting” makes him feel “a sense of anxiety rather than calm.” The painting depicts four women in dresses surrounded by a greenish fog as one of them plays the lute. For Foster, taking in the painting 120 years after its creation, the scene reminds him that the human toll on the environment “is often dissonant and exploitative, a tension that the corporate practice of greenwashing obscures by seducing consumers with illusions of sustainability.” Of course, many viewers might strain to find any contemporary message in a painting so apparently in conversation with antiquity. That’s the whole point, Greenwold says. “The notion that you can in fact bring your own personal or professional vantage, and that there’s value in having that as a way in which you appreciate these works of art, is an important thing.” Get the latest on what's happening At the Smithsonian in your inbox.

Indigenous
Activism
Animals

Brazil Court Drops a Suspect in Amazon Slayings of a British Journalist and an Indigenous Advocate

A federal court in Brazil has dismissed charges against one of three men arrested in the killings of an Indigenous peoples expert and a British journalist in the Amazon, ruling there wasn’t sufficient evidence to try him

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A federal court in Brazil dismissed charges Tuesday against one of three men arrested for the killings of Indigenous peoples expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon, ruling there wasn’t enough evidence to try him. Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, a poor fisherman who lived by the Itaquai River, was arrested on June 14, 2022, nine days after the slayings. Also arrested were his brother, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, and Jefferson da Silva Lima, who confessed to the killings but claimed self-defense. The Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region upheld a lower court decision that they will now face a jury trial. With the ruling, Oseney Oliveira, a father of four, will be released following 27 months in prison, most in a federal penitentiary thousands of miles from Atalaia do Norte, his hometown in Brazil’s Amazon, where the killings occurred.A Colombian businessman, Rubens Villar Coelho, stands accused of masterminding the slayings and is also in custody. As the owner of a floating fish warehouse outpost, he financed illegal fishermen who ventured onto Indigenous land. He denies any involvement in the killings.In a statement, Univaja, an association of Indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley where Pereira was working at the time of his killing, said it received the ruling with “indignation” and “concern” and urged federal prosecutors to appeal the decision.Phillips and Pereira were traveling along the Itaquai River near the entrance of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia, when they were attacked. Their bodies were dismembered, burned and buried. Their disappearance sparked intense international outcry and pressure for action. Pereira, a well-known advocate for Indigenous rights, fought against illegal fishing in Javari area, while Phillips, an experienced journalist, was working on a book about Amazon preservation.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - July 2024

Indigenous
Business
Climate

Nearly 200 people were killed last year protecting the environment

Most were Black or Indigenous

Jonila Castro is an activist working with AKAP Ka Manila Bay, a group helping displaced communities along Manilla’s rapidly-developing harbor maintain their livelihoods and homes. In recent years, projects like the $15-billion New Manila International Airport have been accused of destroying mudflats and fish ponds, and have already displaced hundreds of families and fishermen who rely on the waters of Manila Bay to make a living. Castro’s work has been focused on supporting these communities and dealing with the environmental impacts of development.  But on a rainy night in September, Castro and a friend, while ending their day advocating for the rights of fishing communities, were allegedly abducted by the Philippine military for their work.  “They covered our mouths and brought us to a secret detention facility,” she said. The military interrogators asked them questions about their work in environmental justice, and accused them of being communists. “It’s actually the situation of many activists and environmental defenders here in the Philippines.” Castro and her friend were eventually released two weeks later, but in December of 2023, the Philippine Department of Justice filed charges against them both for “embarrassing” and casting the Philippine military in a “bad light.” The military has denied Castro’s accusations.  A new study from Global Witness, an international organization that focuses on human rights and documenting infractions, finds that tactics like what Castro experienced are happening to land defenders across the planet, often with deadly results. In 2023, almost 200 environmental activists were killed for “exercising their right to protect their lands and environment from harm.” These killings are often carried out alongside acts of intimidation, smear campaigns, and criminalization by governments and often in concert with companies. The report says violence often accompanies land acquisition strategies linked to the developmental interests of agricultural, fossil fuel, and green energy companies. “Governments around the world, not only in the Philippines, have the obligation to protect any of their citizens,” said Laura Furones, lead author of the report. “Some governments are failing spectacularly at doing that, and even becoming complicit with some of those attacks or providing an operating environment for companies.” Indigenous peoples are the most vulnerable to these tactics. Last year, around half of those killed for their environmental activism were Indigenous or Afrodescendents. Between 2012 and 2023, almost 800 Indigenous people have been killed protecting their lands or resources, representing more than a third of all environmental defenders killed around the world in that same time frame.  Colombia has the highest death toll of environmental land defenders, and the number has gone up in 2023. There are 79 documented cases representing the highest annual total that Global Witness has accounted for since 2012. Of those cases, 31 people were Indigenous. Other Latin American countries like Brazil, Honduras, and Mexico have consistently had the most documented cases of murders of environmental defenders. Furones said with the rise of green energy projects, mining will continue to grow, and with it, the potential for violence against land defenders. Mining operations have resulted in the most loss of life according to Global Witness, and while most of these deaths occurred in Latin American countries last year, between 2012 and 2023, many occurred in Asia. Around 40 percent of killings related to mining have happened in Asia since 2012 and the report indicates there are many mineral resources in Asia that are important for green energy technologies.   “The region has significant natural reserves of key critical minerals vital for clean energy technologies, including nickel, tin, rare-earth elements, and bauxite,” the report said. “This might be good news for the energy transition, but without drastic changes to mining practices it could also increase pressure on defenders.” This year, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues also looked into the rise of criminalization that land defenders face, while reporting from the forum showed that there has been very little done to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights over the last decade. A recent report from Climate Rights International, also on the criminalization of climate activism with a focus on Western democracies, like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, found that governments are violating basic tenets of freedom of expression and assembly in order to crack down on climate activists. In the United Kingdom, for example, five people associated with the group Just Stop Oil were given four- and five-year prison sentences for “conspiring to cause a public nuisance” by blocking a major roadway in London in order to bring attention to the abundant use of fossil fuels. They are the longest sentences ever given for non-violent protests in Britain. Taken together, the reports highlight how criminalization has become a strategy to discredit climate activists.  In the Philippines, Jonila Castro said she would continue to protect the people and places of Manila, but she does not go anywhere alone and said she feels like she’s always looking over her shoulder. She is currently facing six months of prison for her activities. “I think the government is thinking that we will be silenced because we’re facing charges,” she said. “But I can’t think of a reason not to continue, and that’s the same with many of the environmental defenders and activists here.” This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/nearly-200-people-were-killed-last-year-protecting-the-environment/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org Read more about Indigenous people and the environment  

Indigenous
Activism
Energy

Suggested Viewing

Standing Rock Take Me From The River

Thousands from across the political spectrum were inspired to travel to Standing Rock and join the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. In Spring 2016, the call went out, and no one would have guessed the movement would gain so much support around the world. The fight is not over: The sacred fire has been kicked out, but the embers are still ablaze in water protectors everywhere as Native Americans lead the important challenges to protect our environment.

Social Justice
Indigenous
Resources

HOME

If you visit Hawaii for the first time, you might be shocked about the wild chickens everywhere around the island. HOME explores the variety of relationship between people and wild chicken in Hawaii. People are trying to protect their community, but wild chickens become a huge part of it. Now we need to find a home for wild chickens, if it’s not already taken over by humans.

Animals
Indigenous
Nature

Shaba

In the mountains of northern Kenya, a Samburu community is doing something that has never been done before. They’ve built a sanctuary for orphaned elephants to try to rehabilitate them back to the wild. The project is not just changing local attitudes about elephants, it's changing attitudes about women too because the secret to Reteti’s success is all because of the special bond between a group of local women keepers and one special elephant named Shaba. Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is the first-ever indigenous community-owned and run sanctuary in all of Africa, where rescued orphaned elephants are looked after by local keepers from the Samburu community. They are rehabilitated and raised and then reintroduced back into the wild. The sanctuary is empowering young Samburu women to be the first-ever indigenous women elephant keepers in all of Africa. At first, the community didn’t think there was a place for women in the workplace. Now, the success of these women elephant keepers is unlocking new possibilities and setting a powerful example for young girls, hoping to pursue their dreams. What’s happening there, without fanfare, is nothing less than the beginnings of a transformation in the way the Samburu people relate to wild animals. This oasis where orphans grow up, learning to be wild so that one day they can rejoin their herds, is as much about people as it is about elephants. This is a personal story about a group of women and an elephant named Shaba who changed each other's lives. This film is a powerful reminder that we are a part of a complex world created over millions of years, and the survival of all species is intertwined with our own. Reteti began in partnership with Conservation International who provided critical operational support and work to scale the Reteti community-centered model to create lasting impacts worldwide.

Animals
Conservation
Indigenous

La Lucha Sigue (The Struggle Continues)

LA LUCHA SIGUE (THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES) is a feature length documentary that combines breathtaking cinematography with intimate access and creative storytelling as it follows COPINH and OFRANEH, two grassroots Indigenous and Black organizations leading the struggle for justice in Honduras.

Indigenous
Social Justice
Culture

Return of the Buffalo

The Lakota people on the Rosebud Reservation of South Dakota welcome buffalo back to their land with hopes that this reunion will restore their cultural, physical, spiritual, and economic health.

Animals
Indigenous
Social Justice

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.