Understanding climate, adapting to change: indigenous cultural values and climate change impacts in North Queensland

Indigenous communities in North Queensland exhibit varying capacities to anticipate and manage climate change impacts, despite sharing common themes regarding environmental and cultural values. The study, focusing on two Aboriginal groups—the rainforest and reef peoples of the Wet Tropics and those inhabiting discontiguous environments of Cape York—reveals diverse understandings of climate change while highlighting shared observations of environmental shifts and causal attributions. This research contributes to a broader understanding of Indigenous resilience and vulnerability, emphasizing the need for fine-grained geographic data on local impacts, particularly in Australian contexts.

McIntyre-Tamwoy, S., Fuary, M., & Buhrich, A. (2013). Understanding climate, adapting to change: indigenous cultural values and climate change impacts in North Queensland. Local Environment, 18(1), 91–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.716415