RE: Meanwhile, back at the ranch...31 Aug 2023 12:25
Back in the mid-seventies the penny dropped for some mining companies that they should be engaging with aboriginal people on their knowledge of country. One of the first to do this was company called Western Mining. In the early eighties I was involved in a prospecting partnership and we were taking a look around Leonora and an area north of there called Wilsons Patch and were introduced to the "Hilll" brothers; Rowley, Willy and Snowy. They were desert people-wongi (check out Wongi/Wangkatha on wikipedia) and new the country. Anyway it turned out that they had worked for Western Mining (and a few others) and they noted that where certain minerals (particularly copper) were eventually found there were certain vegetation in abundance in that area and not so in other areas.
They then used this as part of their prospecting skills.
Put simply they had themselves no preexisting knowledge but had learnt it from the Mining companies they worked with.
As for the Martu out at Panorama - the ? is do they have this knowledge and are GGP paying them to be prospectors.
Maybe the Martu will learn something from GGP - if they have not done so already.