Walking Together- Balak Kalik Manya is a four-year project committed to writing site-specific management plans for two sites within Dja Dja Wurrung Country; Kalimna Park in Castlemaine and Wildflower Drive in Bendigo. The project explores how to increase community connection with nature whilst maintaining and improving biodiversity.

Balak Kalik Manya forms an important part of the state of Victoria’s Traditional Owner co-management structure, supporting the introduction of Indigenous co-management on public lands across Djaara country. Both sites for Balak Kalik Manya were selected due to their proximity to growing townships, and their exposure to the increasing pressures and risks associated with urban growth. Strategies for the management of these sites and others on Dja Dja Wurrung Country focus on mitigating the growing instabilities caused by increasing urbanisation, employing First Nations expertise and leadership to inform policy and promote the care and stewardship of both urban and non urban spaces alike.

The project bridges both qualitative and quantitative approaches to land management, synergising traditional narratives and connections to Country with contemporary cartographies of indigenous species, produced through camera trapping and ranger programs. The project sets out to further embed First Nations practices into the management schema through the integration of the Djaara seasonal calendar in all policies & strategies, departing from the reductive four pole seasonal structure which dominantes the design of contemporary Australia's planning and policy. Balak Kalik Manya is situated within numerous other strategies for management and conservation in development by the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation such as the Dja Dja Wurrung Climate Change Strategy. These strategies outline First Nations lead approaches for climate mitigation and design operating within the systemic instabilities of the anthropocene.

This text was the result of online research borrowing from the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation’s Balak Kalik Manya monthly project updates written by Harley Douglas - Dhelkunya Dja Project Officer, alongside their wider portfolio of strategies available via their online platform.