it nurtures us, you know?

Gives us what we live off.

It has been since time began.

We're so proud to be Yanyuwa people,

knowing that we work

with the country.

We look after it

and it looks after you.

SECOND MAN: For Yanyuwa mob,

enchantment, respect, trust, family

they're the things that actually

bring about practical outcomes

and that is healthy country.

That feeds back into healthy people.

You talk to them old people

and there's these really sophisticated stories about

who can take certain species at what time,

according to family,

the four clans,

and really sophisticated natural resource management

in white fella parlance.

LEONARD NORMAN: These clan groups are called

Wurdaliya, Wuyaliya, Rrumburriya and Mambaliya-Wawukarriya.

They've got special tasks that they do.

They have special areas they look after.

Each one of those clans

has got their own certain work and purpose,

how to fix things up in country,

how to look after it.

But when we come together

it all fits and we have this

one big plan together.

It makes it perfect for everybody

to utilise their skills towards making it

better for this country.

That is why the ranger groups,

we work it out together,

each and every one of them.

Each boy has their own things,

what they can do

and the other person can do other stuff

But when this comes together and they

help each other out

they'll make it happen for everybody else.

STEPHEN JOHNSON: There are no real bosses here.

I've got skills that Leonard hasn't got.

Leonard's got skills I haven't got.

We put them all together

and we get a

really good working relationship.

With this part of the country

there's no baseline data.

Very little scientific information whatsoever,

but there's thousands and thousands of years

of years of close observation

and finely grained knowledge

from Yanyuwa traditional owners.'

(WOMAN SINGS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

STEPHEN JOHNSON: A lot of scientists

are starting to hook into that.

They can see the value

of that knowledge, at last.

It's been a long struggle

to get that message through.

We've set up a junior ranger program

and I think there's a continuity

where them old people

are passing on what they know to us.

It's then, to us, to pass that information

through, that knowledge that goes back

at least 8000 years in this country

and probably a lot longer than that, in fact.

NICHOLAS FITZPATRICK: I grew up out bush, I grew up

on my mum's side,

with my grandfather and my nana

and learnt a lot of things about

culture and language and ceremony and law.

I went to Darwin for high school

and I finished Year 12 and studied

Conservation and Land Management.

I always wanted to be

a ranger since high school.

I went to Alice Springs.

I was doing a Tourism and Rangering

course down there.

I finally got the job down here.

I've been a sea ranger

for a year and a half now.

MAN: It's a small one but it does a bit of damage.

SECOND MAN: The Yanyuwa mob,

they are so grateful that

we're taking kids out to the island,

we're showing them country,

we give them language

for each and every place that they visit.

Cos it's been carried down from

generation to generation

just the knowledge and the language and everything

and the culture together,

it makes it strong

for the Yanyuwa people.

It carries them in their heart.

LEONARD NORMAN: The areas you find

the strongest biodiversity values

are the areas where countrymen

are living on country.

So it's no accident

that those species are healthy,

the numbers are high.

It's because people are living there.

That wilderness thing,

that's just nonsense, you know?

This is managed country,

people look after this country.

STEPHEN JOHNSON: Kids are busy on these video games

and everything else

whereas before, old people used to sit us down

and speak to us

in a real meaningful

way and telling us,

"These are the things that you gotta

keep on carrying on for you

and your kids all the way through".

NICHOLAS FITZPATRICK: When we moved away

when I was ten,

I wanted to come back ever since.

If I hadn't found a job here

I wouldn't have come back.

I probably would have ended up doing

I don't know, an apprenticeship in something.

Probably mechanics.

My dad kept annoying me in Alice Springs

to get into the mines,

but I kept telling him to wait

so I'd get the job.

And, yeah, I got it.

I took off back home.

Being Indigenous rangers on your own country,

looking after it,

you know, that's the best thing.

Jobs for new generations to come.

A lot of kids,

back when I was at primary school,

didn't get the chance

to come out here,

there was no rangers.

Now with the junior rangers,

it's good because

we've got rangers to bring

the kids out and educate

them about their land.

LEONARD NORMAN: I'm so proud to be one of the ranger men.

And with the other boys,

I'm proud of them, as well.

Cos this is something that gives us

some pride in ourselves,

knowing that we're part of this program

that's gonna help this place,

keep it strong

as it were in the old days.