The Pacific Oyster is an invasive species. As it moves along the coast, it ‘colonises’ the rocky shoreline. And as with settler colonialism, this oyster comes to stay, picking off the prime spaces in the intertidal zone ensuring it gets maximum nutrition while displacing native Sydney Rock Oysters to rocky perches that are reached by sea and nutrients only at high tide. Mitchell Gibbs, a Dunghutti man from Kempsey near Port Macquarie, NSW, is focusing his PhD research on oysters – especially oyster and oyster habitats on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. As this podcast reveals, his research is based firmly in scientific method, and it is threaded through with an intense interest in traditional Aboriginal oyster farming practices – practices that protected and enhanced oyster habitats and promoted sustainable harvesting. Focusing on the stressors of climate change – ocean acidification and temperature – on oyster populations, Mitchell seeks to find out what impact they have on the next generations of oysters. Mitchell is keen to blend Indigenous knowledge and science systems with the Western scientific knowledge and approaches and looks at how they can move together in expanding our understanding of the world. Find out more about The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Series.
Timestamps
00:11 Understanding Oysters in a Warming World
02:55 Native vs. Invasive Species
06:35 Indigenous Aquaculture Practices
10:15 Restoring Lost Traditions
12:45 Navigating Conflicting Systems
16:00 Sustainability Rooted in Tradition
17:35 What can Science Learn from Indigenous Knowledge
21:50 Bridging the Divide Between Two Cultures
Speakers
Mitchell Gibbs, PhD student, University of Sydney School of Life and Environment Science
Dr Christine Winter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sydney Environment Institute
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