Collaborative mapping and digital storytellingas tools of Walbunja resurgence

<p dir="ltr">For several decades, members of the Walbunja community around Mogo and Batemans Bay (New South Wales) have aspired to exercise their sovereignty and strengthen their capacity to influence the development and environmental management decisions across their land, freshwater and sea territories. This paper reflects on the experience and findings emerging from the Environmental Stewardship Resurgence in Walbunja Land and Sea Country project funded through the AIATSIS Indigenous Exchange scheme. It explores some of the opportunities and challenges associated with using collaborative mapping applications and digital storytelling to document Walbunja contemporary connections to Country and support the resurgence of Walbunja stewardship responsibilities across their territory. We explore whether these platforms can be used creatively by local communities to exercise their sovereignty, on a day-to-day basis, by taking control over the cartographic expression and knowledge produced about their territories. We also examine whether this process can help transform the ties between the Walbunja and non-Indigenous people living on their territories by stimulating dialogues and fostering better understandings by the latter of the contemporary reciprocal commitments that the Walbunja people maintain with Country.</p>