Digital Women Rangers: telling stories with data for Country

Digital Boss Ladies leading the way

The Digital Boss Ladies Governance Committee (pictured above) guides the program and works side by side with a team of women researchers to ensure the program: 

• is Indigenous led
• respects and honours Indigenous rights and cultural ownership
• is community specific that respects the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and peoples
• supports deep listening and two-way learning to ensure respectful, culturally specific, and culturally safe communication and interactions are practiced
• supports review and reflection to ensure the program is respectful and delivering benefits desired by local Indigenous communities and ranger groups
• recognises, respects and is improved with Indigenous knowledge that Indigenous men and women collaborators wish to share, and
• supports partnerships that share and build new knowledge to build the program together.

The Committee met recently in Nitimulkj on Jawoyn Country in the Northern Territory to guide, review and support the program activities and impact.  

On-Country learning - women supporting women

On-Country learning enables women rangers to learn and share a range of digital skills. Participants have been supported to co-design and complete training modules to use digital technologies such as camera traps and drones.  Elders are also resourced to support on-Country workshops and training to ensure rangers can learn in a culturally safe way.

The program is flexible, to enable Indigenous land and sea managers to adapt digital skills to each local place, accommodate Indigenous peoples’ digital confidence and choices, and account for any digital accessibility issues that may be unique to each group.

The completion of each module earns a digital badge which is co-verified by senior cultural and technical authorities and awarded through Charles Darwin University.

Mimal Ranger Anthea Lawrence, the first person to earn the Site Survey Using Drones introductory digital badge, reflects on why offering culturally safe credentials is key to engaging more young Indigenous Rangers to learn new tech skills in AI and data.

I love the drone and learning from other women and their digital skills so we can all work together to tell stories about Country with data.

- Ranger Anthea Lawrence

The program also supports peer-to-peer learning and networking to enable women rangers to apply and celebrate digital skills to support Caring for Country goals and work.  The program has supported the women rangers to also develop Ranger friendly guidelines to learn digital skills, co-authored and shared with the broader network (such as camera trap instructions, drone guidelines and training resources).

Senior Ranger Suzanna Nabulwad, a member of the Warddeken Daluk (Women’s) Ranger team from Warddeken Land Management proudly notes:

Us ladies are leading right way, two-way approaches to using data and tech for Country.

- Senior Ranger Suzanna Nabulwad

Sharing stories and connecting

The program also supports Indigenous Women Rangers to celebrate and share what they’ve learned together at Digital Women Ranger workshops, held as part of the annual Territory NRM and Strong Women for Healthy Country forums.

Women from other communities are invited into these forums to reflect and share how women rangers and researchers are using digital technology to tell stories about Country using data.

To learn more about the program:

• follow the Digital Women Rangers page on Linkedin
• watch the Rangers share their insights on how the program benefits both people & country 
• download and read the Digital Women Rangers report
• view the resources developed to share knowledge.

Healthy Country AI and digital program

The Digital Women Rangers program is part of the Healthy Country AI and digital program that aims to:

• Enhance the confidence of Indigenous land and sea managers to use data, AI and digital tools to care for Country.
• Empower Indigenous land and sea managers to deliver on-ground impact through use of data and technology.
• Support networking opportunities for Indigenous land and sea managers to share and learn from stories about Country using data.