Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095:body:0:p6
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01095
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 14032–16693

and the ability to predict and find a valued food source. One of the stars in the Boorong night sky was called Neilloan. It is named after the Lowan or Loan (Malleefowl). The star is part of a constellation that contemporary astronomers call "Lyra". For the Boorong people, its collection of stars have the general shape of a bird with Malleefowl-like characteristics, including a star in a position that gives the appearance of a large foot or leg issuing from the body of the bird.
The almanac connections between the Malleefowl and the Lyra constellation: "Lyra appears in the southern hemisphere only between March and October, coinciding with the mound building period of the Malleefowl. The behaviours of the Malleefowl is also linked to an annual event in the Lyra constellation. The Lyrids is the name given to meteor showers in this constellation that can be seen in April, and "they remind us of the bits of sand, twigs and other matter flying through the air as the Malleefowl kicks material on or away from the mound". The constellation not only looks like the bird, it behaves like one. Also, as Neilloan fades in the southern sky in October, the loan's eggs will be ready to harvest.
The story of the Malleefowl in the night sky indicates an acute knowledge of the timing of events between cosmos and the bird. Human care and empathy intersect with the Malleefowl's phenology and fecundity, which must be respected, or else it would be lost to the ecosystem. For this reason, some people in the Boorong clan would have had the Malleefowl as their totem. The special empathy with the bird meant not only that they could not eat it, but also that a major role in their life would be to look after its habitat. Telling the story of the Malleefowl in the sky in an account of how to live and how to relate to other beings. There is an emotional astronomy that, once understood, gives to people an intimate empathy with fellow creatures that in turn given them sustenance (Albrecht, 2019).

On Indigenous land in both SA and WA, Malleefowl typically occur at low densities, and the challenges to their conservation are very different from those in the more arable areas of the species range. The recovery effort will depend on Indigenous-led land management due to the Traditional Knowledge, skill and land management practices of Indigenous people in these areas, and their connection to and knowledge of Country on which Malleefowl occur.

In particular, the plan aims to promote the role of Indigenous communities by:
       * encouraging traditional land management, particularly in regard to fire;

       * encouraging the recording of sightings;