We are part of the country, so when you return here,
it's like you're coming home and you just feel the energy
from your ancestors, the spirits in that area.
You always feel at home when you come out here.
No matter whether it's hot, dry or
like this or whatever. It's home.
To me, we're home.
These Badimia people have returned to the land of their forefathers
to have a say in the way their country is managed.
Their return is part of a State Government plan to create five million
hectares of new land and marine parks and reserves across the state.
Here in the beating red heart of WA's Murchison region.
The Plan for our Parks initiative has resulted in the addition
of 114,000ha of former pastoral stations
and unallocated Crown land to the reserve system.
With stock removed and the country enjoying its best winter rains in years,
the Badimia people believe their ancestors are already rejoicing.
I think they're rejoicing now
because we look at it in terms of look at the country today.
It's coming back.
It's starting to look beautiful and green and healthy again.
And that says to our heart that we're doing right,
I think they'd be very proud, that they can see
Badimia people taking control.
And having an interest in their land.
For the Badimia, helping to manage their land is not just about protecting nature,
but about preserving cultural sites, honouring the land's stories.
For this is a country rich in cultural heritage and Dreamtime tales.
Look at the handprint there. Yeah.
All this is sort of engraved in, chipped in.
They would've probably used
some sharp stone or something,
and handprints are done by ochre or wilgie.
The story goes that
the red kangaroo was speared
and he travelled through the hills and when you see the hill all turn red,
that's the blood from him with his hopping.
And that's where he died up there at Wilgie Mia.
That's why there' so much red ochre up there.
This would have been an area for the old people,
the ancestors, to come and camp, hunt,
get ducks, ducks' eggs.
As you can see, we've got
heaps of artefacts
to show that they've been around here.
And this lake here is a
significant place for the Bimarra, which is our
rainbow serpent.
And he had a hand in making this and the hills.
An old guy that was on the back
of the ute with us, he pointed that out to me.
We were both on standing on the back of the ute and he said, "See
that white spot there Gummy?" He said: "That's
where the good spirits live in there."
And he said, "If your spirit is
good, it'll come back there to that spot
and you'll come back as a part of the country".
So we're here in a site that is particularly women's business
and it's a fertility site and I believe it's a birthing site as well.
And we've got hills behind me here that represent the female body
and possibly pregnant.
And also, I know of sites in the hills there where you can go
if you are wanting to become pregnant.
By jointly managing their country alongside Department
of Biodiversity and Conservation and Attractions staff the Badimia are able
to fulfill their responsibility to look after their country.
For Allan Leggerini, the joint management enables him
to take care of the Dreamtime serpent, the Bimarra, and the waters it inhabits.
Allan has special responsibilities after an elder from afar
hand-selected him for the task when he was just a child.
So they took me up the waterfall,
apparently they were singing in language.
We had a big drought
and my grandmother and I went up the waterfall and dug down in the sand
until we got to water,
then we got these tins - old jam tins -
and just got the water out and threw it all around the cave,
all around the walls.
And then the next morning, I woke up really early in the morning
and I could hear noise and it was frogs.
And then you could hear
the waterfall roaring, you know how it used to come down here,
and looked out and the dam was overflowing and the water was running down the lake.
The joint management arrangement includes plans
for an Aboriginal ranger program, and Indigenous tourism opportunities,
sparking new hope for younger Badimia people.
I see it being very good for for the future generations,
there will be opportunities here, I think, for tourism
and telling Badimia stories, cultural tourism.
The future is going to look so much brighter.
I can only say that our young ones
are going to benefit from this, and that's why
myself and my elders are here today to get this up and running,
to see it through and then have something to be left
behind for our young ones.
Well, it gives them something to do
instead of sitting around in town or whatever and doing nothing
but out here, they can be on country, learn a bit about their country
and feel proud to be an Aboriginal person.
But this gives them a chance to be somebody and
make a life for themselves.