Holding Country: Centring First Peoples’ sovereignty and self-determination in conservation land negotiations

<p dir="ltr">This project focuses on Victorian examples of private land hand back to First Peoples from conservation organisations, landholders and other governance actors. It reports on focused research and participatory workshops with Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, First Peoples and other key actors in the sector. The aim of this work is to improve both understanding and actionable pathways to better enable First Peoples to own, access and manage private conservation lands in ways that support the asserting of sovereignty and the enabling of self-determination. We present emerging insights and recommend models and resources that can be built on in the future.</p><p dir="ltr">Our primary focus is on negotiations and partnerships related to the large and important private land estate. However, our research covers a range of land-use history, tenure, and governance models, including relationships with state actors. While this phase of research focuses on land, we recognise that similar research is needed to explore First Peoples’-led water governance.</p>