The female Indigenous rangers from Queensland who’ve won a £1million Earthshot Prize

When Larissa Hale starts her work day, she never quite knows what it will entail. She could be tracking crocodiles, rescuing a sea turtle, building a walking path, or monitoring the health of the local seagrass—it’s all part and parcel of her work to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Hale is managing director of the Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network (QIWRN), a group dedicated to protecting the fragile ecosystem of the reef. Because of the work they are doing, the organization was recently awarded with the prestigious GBP£1m (USD$1.2m) Earthshot Prize.

Founded by Prince William and British environmental activist David Attenborough, the Earthshot Prize is an award given each year to just five environmental innovators, whose goal is to “regenerate and repair the planet while creating equitable and sustainable livelihoods.” The selection process is layered—based on various factors including the different types of nomination, where the projects are currently at in their life cycle and who’s involved.

This year, the Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network won the 2022 “Revive Our Oceans” category, which focuses on repairing and preserving the oceans for future generations. One of the key points within this category is developing ecosystem services that mitigate climate change, which can be seen through the rangers’ on-the-ground conservation efforts, including cleaning up shorelines, controlling pests, developing walking trails and camping areas, and conducting controlled burns to prevent wildfires.

The QIWRN also received recognition for their on-the-ground action saving the Great Barrier Reef from damage. Overfishing, coastal development, and watershed pollution (when pollutants flow into waterways) are just some of the threats that QIWRN’s work is trying to address. As a network, they also welcome visitors to the area and are responsible for providing visitor infrastructure, monitoring biodiversity, surveying vulnerable species and education programs.

“We are more than just our jobs, or our roles as mother, daughter and sister. We have a special role in taking care of our planet—that’s when great things happen.”

- Larissa Hale, QIWRN

Legacy work is part of their commitment to improving the health and resilience of the reef. A networking forum allows women rangers to share their experience, history and knowledge of the land and sea with each other and connects those in remote and isolated communities. The group supports and empowers Indigenous women to take leadership roles and protect their country and its people.

“To have an ambitious Indigenous women-designed and -led network—that is being delivered out of Cooktown in regional Queensland—be acknowledged internationally is a huge honor,” Hale says. She is also the managing director of the Yuku Baja Muliku Land Corporation. The Yuku Baja Muliku Traditional Owners Group are the original caretakers of the land in Archer Point, where Hale is based, which borders the Great Barrier Reef. “Currently less than 20 percent of Indigenous rangers are women,” adds Hale. “Hidden in this statistic is a prejudice that environmental work is physical work and therefore a job for men; that is not the case.”

According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, there were an average of more than 2 million visitors to the areas annually pre-pandemic. Visitors typically pay an environmental surcharge (currently AUD$7; USD$5 per person for a full day) that significantly boosts the Queensland and Australian economy and protects the Great Barrier Reef by employing Indigenous women of the Great Barrier Reef to work as rangers.

Hale says that the aim of the QIWRN, founded in 2018, has always been to “bring together strong, amazing, Indigenous women rangers, showcase their talents, and promote their experiences and expertise.” Through the program, more than 60 women have been trained. Their new conservation approach combines ancient knowledge of how to care for the land passed down from generation to generation with modern tools such as drones that monitor coral changes; a technological advance that allows them to achieve results in hours, rather than days.

“The opportunity to shape the world around us through our skills and First Nations knowledge is honoring our past and protecting our future for our children,” says Hale. “We are creating a future that harnesses traditional knowledge and is led by Indigenous women.”

Award winners are matched with Earthshot Global Alliance partners who can provide guidance on subjects such as business planning, market strategy, talent planning, organizational design and fundraising. These partners help provide resources to accelerate the eco-innovators’ efforts to make their impact more urgent, to provide a global platform to tell their stories and educate winners on how they can scale their solutions and grow as an organization.

“With this opportunity, we have now set our sights to reach out to a global network to build a collective helping to care for and restore the planet,” says Hale. “We are more than just our jobs, or our roles as mother, daughter and sister. We have a special role in taking care of our planet—that’s when great things happen.”

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