Jordan Ivey: On Indigenous Leadership in Reef Restoration and Protection 

As part of National Science Week, join us for an inspiring talk with Jordan Ivey from the Australian Institute of Marine Science as we dive into the outcomes of Reef Restoration and Adaption Program: Indigenous Futures, a groundbreaking three-year program that has empowered Great Barrier Reef Traditional Owner groups to take the lead in coral restoration and marine monitoring on their sea Country.

Through hands-on training and Indigenous knowledge systems, 30 Indigenous Rangers from eight groups gained skills in coral spawn collection, larval rearing, deployment, and reef monitoring.

This talk will share the program’s final-year successes, where ranger teams carried out coral restoration activities and used innovative monitoring tools like ReefScan and ReefCloud to track reef health. The program shows how Indigenous-led approaches can drive reef restoration on the Great Barrier Reef and beyond.

This is a yarn you won’t want to miss—celebrating the power of Indigenous knowledge, collaboration, and innovation in safeguarding one of the world’s most iconic ecosystems and combining cultural knowledge with cutting-edge science to protect our reefs for future generations!