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keynotes
At the centre of the WA Wetlands Conference, keynotes drive the shared daily dialogue that connects the wetland professionals and stakeholders in attendance from around WA. These presentations run for one hour each, showcasing some of our most inspired thinkers as they tackle the most timely topics of today and tomorrow.
We have included two keynotes each of the first and second days of the Conference, one each for the morning and afternoon sessions. These will be conducted in the main hall and are accessible to all delegates.
Explore some of our recently-announced Keynote speakers for the WA Wetlands Conference below and stay tuned for additional programs. For more sessions by inspiring creatives, browse through our Program webpage.
Walter McGuire & Francesca Flynn
BNAA Chairperson & BNAA Executive Director
Bibbul Ngarma Aboriginal Association Incorporated (BNAA)
As a descendent of several tribal groups in the South West of Western Australia, Walter is a Traditional Owner of Noongar Boodjar which includes the Whadjuk lands on which Perth stands and the adjacent Ballardong and Yued Boodja. Walter is a founding member of BNAA and has chaired the organisation since its inception in May 2022. He is a strong advocate and example of self-determination, and has a long history working in Aboriginal education, health, housing, policy and mentoring for the Commonwealth, WA State Government and Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations. Walter is a Founding Director of Go Cultural Aboriginal Tours and Experiences, a nationally award-winning tourism and cultural services business, and a Committee Member of the Wadjemup Aboriginal Reference Group, a Cabinet-appointed advisory group to the Rottnest Island Authority. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Indigenous Community Management and Development from Curtin University and a Cert IV in Training and Assessment.
Co-presenter, Francesca Flynn, is an English-born Australian citizen who has called Perth home since emigrating from the UK in 2012. She is an environmental scientist and program manager with 18 years’ experience in contaminated land management, site assessment, sampling design and remediation. Francesca is the co-creator of the BoorYul-Bah-Bilya program and is responsible for overseeing its development and implementation with the BNAA Board and Senior Elders. She holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science (Distinction) from the University of Manchester and two Bachelor of Science degrees in Environmental Science and Psychology.
BoorYul-Bah-Bilya: Creating a new model for river catchment management
Bibbul Ngarma Aboriginal Association Incorporated (BNAA) is an Aboriginal-led charity located on Whadjuk-Noongar Boodja in the Perth Hills. We believe in bringing back the traditional ways of caring for country for the benefit of all who live on Noongar Boodja (Noongar Country). Our work is critical to restoring ecosystems and reinvigorating cultural heritage that has been degraded over time, allowing us to reconnect communities with rivers and each other through a shared love for country. Our activities are led from a Noongar perspective but designed so everyone can benefit from the knowledge and systems that have balanced these lands from the beginning.
The BoorYul-Bah-Bilya program, or BBB, is our collaborative and community-led program for healthy rivers. As part of the 2029 Perth bicentenary, we are using the Mandoon Bilya (Helena River) to create a new model process that is transferable, scalable and applicable to the ongoing management of any river catchment.
Most Western Australian rivers and wetlands are degraded. Less than 1% of our major rivers are in pristine or near-pristine condition, and despite the good work of many, river and wetland health continues to decline. Due to our deep concern about declining river and wetland health, especially on Noongar Boodja, we launched the BBB program in 2024. BBB is the first program of its kind to consider environmental, social, cultural and economic values in one integrated plan, allowing a better balance between the many values of rivers. Our grassroots approach ensures local knowledge is embedded throughout and enables the whole community to participate.
Keynote | Day 1 | First Session
Vivienne Hansen & Cristina Ramalho
UWA School of Agriculture and Environment
Vivienne Hansen is a Ballardong Whadjuk Noongar Yorga from the Bibbulmun Nation. She spent her childhood in Brookton and surrounding regions of the Noongar Country, where she learnt from her grandfather and his brothers on bush medicine and bush food. In 2008, Vivienne undertook formal training at the Marr Mooditj Foundation, completing a Certificate IV in Bush and Western Medicine. Vivienne has co-written two best-seller books on Noongar Bush Medicine and Noongar Bush Tucker. Vivienne runs a small business selling Noongar bush medicine and homemade remedies (Binyaarns Bush Medicine). She is part of the Circle of Elders for the WA Aboriginal Leadership Institute (WAALI) and the Noongar Advisory Circle for the Perth Festival. She is also the Elder in Residence for the West Coast Eagles, and a Life member of Perth NAIDOC. Vivienne has been a driving force in the Djarlgarro Bilya Waterways Project, sharing her knowledge and wisdom throughout the project's journey and being a member of the project's Cultural Advisory Group.
Dr Cristina Ramalho is a lecturer at the University of Western Australia, teaching environmental management, and undertaking research in the fields of social-ecological research, cross-cultural ecology, urban ecology and conservation planning. She is interested in cities and in research that can support transition to more ethical, just, sustainable and biodiverse ways of coexisting in urban landscapes. Cristina has been a facilitator of the Djarlgarro Bilya Waterways Project since it's inception, working with several Noongar Elders to record their lived experiences and stories of the Djarlgarro Bilya and surrounding wetlands and waterways.
The Djarlgarro Beeliar Waterways Project
The Djarlgarro Bilya Project brought together fifteen Noongar Elders to share their lived experiences, stories and cultural knowledge of the Djarlgarro Bilya and other surrounding wetlands and waterways. The project has produced a co-authored book that will soon be available in book shelves. Altogether, the Elders' stories connect places throughout the metropolitan area and beyond, providing a new window to see afresh the place many of us call home. All authors are proud for seeing the project coming to fruition through an educational resource that will be available to the wider community and future generations.
Keynote | Day 1 | Second Session
David Morgan & Travis Fazeldean
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Murdoch University
David Morgan is an Associate Professor in Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems within Murdoch University's Harry Butler Institute. Travis Fazeldean is a Traditional Owner from the Kimberley who has a position with the Harry Butler Institute. They have been collaborating on projects in remote parts of Western Australia since 2005, primarily on the importance of the Kimberley's Fitzroy River as a global hotspot for the Critically Endangered Freshwater (or Largetooth) Sawfish. They have conducted fish surveys of rivers wetlands and estuaries in the Kimberley and Pilbara, including rescue missions for sawfish. More recently they have established a long-term project on Green Sawfish in the Pilbara.
Critically Endangered sawfish species in the rivers, wetlands, and estuaries of the Kimberley and Pilbara
Keynote | Day 2 | First Session
Rod Giblett
Writing, Literature and Culture Group, Deakin University
Rod was the Secretary of the Friends of Forrestdale for 25 years. He is the author of Forrestdale: People and place (Bassendean: Access Press, 2006), Postmodern wetlands: Culture, history, ecology (Edinburgh University Press, 1996), Black swan lake: Life of a wetland (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013), several other books about wetlands and co-editor of Western Australian wetlands: The Kimberley and south-West with Hugh Webb (Perth: Black Swan Press and the Wetlands Conservation Society, 1996). He also contributed to Australian wetland cultures: Swamps and the environmental crisis, co-edited by John Charles Ryan and Li Chen (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2020).
Wetland Cultures: Aboriginal, Colonial, Postcolonial
Wetlands have had a precarious place in Australia since European invasion and colonisation with the majority of them having been abused, drained, filled, embanked, or impounded for the establishment of sheep ‘runs’ and cattle stations, farms for growing introduced grains and grasses, market gardens for growing vegetables, and colonial settlements that later grew into cities. By contrast, wetlands are important places and play a vital role in the lives and for the livelihoods of Aboriginal peoples in Australia and have done so for tens of thousands of years. These roles are spiritual, symbolic, material, and physical, including using the instruments of ‘digging sticks’ for the cultivation of plants in wetlands for human and animal consumption, or paludiculture for short. I use the term paludiculture to refer to the cultivation of plants for animal and human use and consumption in all types of wetlands, including bogs, lagoons, marshes and swamps. I define paludiculture as the cultivation of local, native (endemic) plants in wetlands for animal and human use and consumption, including eating and heating. Paludiculture is wetland farming. Wetland cultures include paludiculture. Aboriginal peoples’ attitudes, values, actions and behaviours towards Australian wetlands are major, crucial and vital points of cultural difference between them and those of the European invaders and colonisers that still persist today, including in the perception of Aboriginal peoples as exclusively hunters and gatherers. The differences are stark between colonial denigration and destruction of wetlands, or their aestheticisation and embankment, and Aboriginal wetland cultivation and culture.