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Power and Negotiation on Country: An Analysis of Indigenous, Government, and Industry Drivers in the Work of the Murujuga Rangers
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Power and Negotiation on Country: An Analysis of Indigenous, Government, and Industry Drivers in the Work of the Murujuga Rangers

Kritika Lama
Masters by Coursework, Murdoch University
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Abstract

Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula (WA West Pilbara SF50-02) Environment - Land management Occupations - Rangers and park workers
Indigenous Ranger programs have grown into sites of strong Indigenous authority over land, spanning cultural, wellbeing, environmental, and scientific domains. This pattern is seen across Australia and internationally. Due to the historical displacement of Indigenous communities, both by government and extractive industries, ranger programs are particularly important enactments of empowerment. But ranger programs also frequently take place on contested land where various external stakeholders have their own interests. Murujuga is one such place where the Murujuga Rangers' work has emerged amongst Indigenous authority, industry and state interests. The Rangers work in this space where they constantly negotiate between different epistemologies, values and drivers, and against a backdrop of controversy over rock art heritage and its newly anointed World Heritage Listing. This case study seeks to situate the Murujuga Rangers within this conflicting space and to understand how they collaborate with industry and governments to create power/knowledge in the Third Space. This dissertation concludes that the conflicting nature of the different drivers is what creates the possibilities of the Rangers work, and how they come to occupy a position of epistemic power production.

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