Aunty Josie Windsor spoke to the audience about the need to move towards truth telling and inclusive resilience. “Can we share knowledge with you? Can you support Aboriginal-led governance? Can you use our cultural indicators? Can we share a vision of transformation? It’s not just inclusion, but a structural change.”

Caring for Country is resilience

Resilience is a relationship, not a product

“We didn’t understand what “drought” was. Looking after Country is what we do.”

This morning we welcomed Aunty Josie Windsor as our third conference plenary speaker at Drought Resilience 2025.

This proud Wayilwan and Gamilaraay woman is also a senior knowledge holder from regional NSW.

Always generous in sharing her knowledge of Country with others in the scientific community, Aunty Josie provided her Traditional Owner perspective to guide water-resource management.

“Our approaches to caring for Country are totally different,” she told the room, “we didn’t understand what ‘drought’ was.

“Looking after Country is what we do. We don’t understand ‘drought’ and ‘drought resilience’. I grew up on a mission, and we used to watch the stockmen moving their cattle and wondering why they couldn’t keep them on their land? We didn’t realise they were seeking water.

“Resilience is not a product, it’s a relationship. Caring for Country is resilience. Aboriginal people are resilience. Part of our lore when growing up is to look after water and Country.”

65,000+ years of knowledge into 20 minutes

“I’m going to squash 65,000-plus years of knowledge into 20 minutes. Aboriginal people bring 65,000-plus years of culture and experience – with spiritual knowledge, handed-down knowledge, a seasonal approach, sharing knowledge, timing of seasons, understanding the behaviour of plants and animals, water management, storytelling, understanding flora and fauna, hunting, fishing, gathering, cultural ceremonies, whole clan group and tribe participation, knowledge of how to minimise evaporation, and understanding billabongs, gilgies, rock pools and plants.

“So what’s gone wrong? Well, it started a long time ago: a disaster of western and Aboriginal worlds being 2 worlds apart. Mother Earth is a living entity, relational.”

Aunty Josie said we need to move towards truth telling and inclusive resilience.

“Can we share knowledge with you? Can you support Aboriginal-led governance? Can you use our cultural indicators? Can we share a vision of transformation?

“It’s not just inclusion, but a structural change.”

She questioned what resilience would look like if we defined by Country, not just by policy, and described how bushfire is the biggest disaster that affects Aboriginal people.

An audience question from Katrina Baxendell, Director, Research and Adoption Strategy and Hub Management, Future Drought Fund, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) was: “How can we better learn from Aboriginal people?”

Aunty Josie said “It’s about engaging with Aboriginal people. Seek them out, engage with them. Just taking them as a guide onto Country has to stop. It’s about engagement. If you go on an egg hunt, you have to look for them, the eggs don’t come to you, so seek them out and engage; ask. It’s not because western people are ignorant, you just don’t know, so engage.”

Audience member Katie McRobert, Australian Farm Institute Executive Director, asked about a better way to enable Aboriginal-led governance.

Aunty Josie’s response was again about engagement.

“You need to be inclusive, have real engagement. You want to do something? Talk to us – and make sure you have the women in the room, because we are a matriarchal society.”

She said resilience was “the things that Aboriginal people do to maintain our life, and our fauna and fauna”.