Yirrganydji Land and Sea Rangers: Project Kul-Bul

As custodians of this coastline, the Yirrganydji people hold a wealth of traditional ecological and bio-cultural knowledge which they use to protect and manage Sea Country for future generations.

The Kul-Bul project is a collaborative reef health program based on Traditional Owner perspectives and contemporary know-how – designed to help those on the Reef help the Reef.

The first reef conservation project led by Traditional Owners, Kul-Bul will combine Indigenous Ecological Knowledge with contemporary biological monitoring practices to holistically assess the health of coral reef sites. This project aims to produce a scalable program for tourism operators and Traditional Owners to promote and conserve the outstanding natural and cultural values of the Great Barrier Reef.

We collaboarted with the Kul-Bul project partners to document the initial stages of Project Kul-bul over the program's first 12 months. We joined the Kul-Bul team to capture them undertaking a variety of reef health monitoring missions, including the annual coral spawning event with the aim of building a picture of how the collaborating partners work together to care for Sea Country.