The Mua Island Garden Project: Reconstructing plant management practices in Western Torres Strait (Old ID 27527)
Role
Principal Investigator
Description
Food security in the face of climate change is a challenge for remote Indigenous communities in Australia, especially for Torres Strait Islander communities. Key to meeting this challenge is developing environmentally/culturally sustainable horticultural initiatives that build on traditional gardening practices adapted to hilly granite terrains of western Torres Strait. The Project thus brings together archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence with existing horticultural understandings of the Mualgal community to: 1. Understand how a western Torres Strait community developed and crafted their horticultural world over hundreds and perhaps thousands of years to accommodate the demands of wet and dry season climate extremes and hilly terrain; and, 2. Develop data and research into plant management in ways that are responsive to the contemporary aspirations and resources of a local Torres Strait Islander community.
Date
23 Mar 2022 - 31 Dec 2022
Project Type
GRANT
Keywords
Holocene;horticultural systems;Torres Strait
Funding Body
The Royal Society of Queensland
Amount
2300
Project Team
N/A