The 2025 National Landcare Conference, running from Sunday to Wednesday, opened this week on the Gold Coast with a strong focus on Indigenous land management.
Day one's proceedings were held at the Guanaba Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) on Kombumerri Country, part of the wider Bundjalung nation.
Delegates travelled from across Australia to the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre to attend the First Nations Landcare Gathering, hosted by Landcare Australia's First Nations Landcare Working Group.
The day began with a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony, followed by a performance from a Quandamooka dance troupe.
Dreaming stories were shared alongside cultural exchanges including a dance corroboree and bush tucker gift offerings.
Participants then joined Yarning Circles on topics such as program design, economic empowerment, and land conservation.
Kombumerri, Noonuccal and Ngugi woman, Justine Dillon said the gathering was grounded in the right cultural protocols.
"We did a welcome ceremony where we did a smoking and we had our Aboriginal dance troupe here, my nephews and nieces to share in Quandamooka song lines with permissions, of course," she said.
Ms Dillon said the protected area provided an important space for her family's cultural and environmental work.
"This area is very significant for my family as it's one of the only few spots we have on the Gold Coast to do our cultural connection work and activities and our environmental conservation work, which is what connects us to our country and culture," she said.
Yorta Yorta man Ian Hamm, Chair of the Aboriginal Advisory Group for the Future Drought Fund, said the gathering showed the strength of community-led approaches.
"We need to listen to the community - we need to listen to people who will want to access the fund," he said.
"We need to think about how we construct it, how we respond to where people want to go.
"So how do we fit into their world rather than make them be square peg in a round hole, as it were."
He added that the informal nature of the day created space for meaningful dialogue.
"The formal structure of the day kind of fell apart reasonably quickly, which was fantastic," he said.
"We do what we do best. We talk with each other. We learn from each other and out of today comes renewed energy about what we want to do."
Kalari and Wiradjuri woman Dahni Gilbert, a member of the First Nations Working Group, said the gathering laid the foundation for the conference.
"Often mob are left to the side of these conversations," she said.
"So to start this conference off with such a strong focus on making sure that community's voices are being heard and our aspirations and needs are being met sets a really good tone for how we're gonna carry that through the conference."
Monday's program will open at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre with a Welcome to Country, keynote addresses, and panels on climate resilience, carbon and biodiversity markets, and Landcare's role in building sustainable futures alongside Indigenous people, farmers, and conservation groups.
